My Best Friend's Brother
by underthemoonandthestars
Summary: Gabriella's best friend's brother, Troy, always used to tease her. Two years after he graduates, he comes back to visit from college. Will Troy develop feeling for her, or has he always had feeling for her? Find out. TxG
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"**We're** back!" My best friend Jen screams as we enter her house. There are so many great memories all over this place. I spent most of my time here. Jen has been my best friend since we were seven. I moved to Albuquerque from New York with my parents. Her family is like a second family to me, well except her brother Troy.

Ugh, Troy. He always teased me. I didn't always look like I do now. I was flat all over, had a skin problem, glasses, and I wore really baggy clothes. That all changed the summer before junior year, when I finally let Jen give me a makeover because I didn't want to waste my high school years. We both got accepted to UCLA, sadly where Troy goes, and we are going to be sharing this awesome house our parents bought for us. We decided to spend the summer in Albuquerque, not in LA because we were scared we might not see our family in while. Troy hasn't been home since he left for college two years ago; we don't want that to happen to us. I'm going to be staying at the Bolton residence because my mom and dad are in Europe for this major business deal. Laura, Jen's mom came down the stairs.

"Okay, I'm sorry Gabriella, but you are going to stay in Troy's room for a couple of weeks because the renovations in our guest room are not finished yet." She tells me. My face immediately falls. "Don't worry honey, I doubt Troy's coming home this year. Matt is going to be staying with Amanda and Edward in his room. They are arriving tomorrow."

Matt is the oldest Bolton kid. He was like the big brother I always wanted. Amanda is his totally cool wife; she's like a sister to me and Jen. The two of them started dating in their sophomore year, after high school, they stayed together and attended NYU, got married, and had their awesome son, Edward. Jen is his god mother. They promised me the next child would be my god kid. I love them forever.

I nod my head. A couple of weeks wouldn't hurt right? I fake a smile. "It's okay."

Laura nods at me and walks into the kitchen. I immediately turned around and look at Jen desperately. "Troy's room?!" I whisper-scream at her in horror. "I never even seen what it looked like!"

"I'm sorry, but you can't sleep in my room, my bed in only a double!" She knows how much Troy hates me.

"Whatever, let's go put my stuff up there." I grumble. She laughs at me. I glare at her showing her this isn't a laughing matter. She immediately stops but I can see the smile she was trying to hold in.

"Don't worry, it's clean. Mom always cleans it hoping he might visit us. Oh please, Troy would never come back to this place." She tells me rolling her eyes. I think that was supposed to make me feel better. We carry my stuff to Troy's room and we immediately crash on his bed.

"I'm so tired!" We yell in unison. It took a second before we started cracking up.

"Wow, your brother's bed is comfortable." I admit. She laughed and sat up.

"Damn, I haven't been in here since I was eight." She says. I giggle and looked at my surroundings. The walls are blue; there were shelves everywhere with basketball trophies carefully put into place. This computer by his window, there were pictures everywhere, of his family and friends, and a couch that ties everything together. It looked like a typical boy's room.

"I never was in here." I murmur. Troy made sure nobody entered his room. No matter what.

"Troy's weird. The only normal ones are me and Matt." Jen tells me bluntly looking at the pictures around the room. I laugh and snuggle deeper into the bed. It smells really good.

"Girls! Jack and I are going to the supermarket! Would you like to come?!" Laura yells from down stair. Jen looks at me questionably.

"Do you want to go?" she asks me.

"Nah, I want to crash for a while." I answer taking my boots off. "You can go if you want to."

"Okay, I'll get us lots of ice cream and chocolate, so we can celebrate leaving that hell hole a.k.a. high school." She run, well, more like bounces out of the room. "Bye!" She yells once she was going out the door. Finally peace and quiet. I pull the covers over my body and let sleep take over my body.

**I** feel someone poking me. They need to stop. I'm trying to sleep. They won't stop! Ugh! I slowly open my eyes. There's a guy there, his face covered in the shadows.

"AHHHHH!" I scream in shock. The guy jumps and I see his face more clearly. The shaggy hair in front of blue eyes, perfect tan skin. Oh shit!

"TROY!" I yell in absolute horror jumping out of the bed. What the fuck is he doing back here! He's not supposed to be here! "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"This is my room and I came to surprise my family." He informs me, confused why I was in his room. Why isn't he yelling at me? I notice his eyes looking at every inch of my body. I get self-conscious and put on my East High basketball sweatshirt. I notice I've only been asleep for twenty minutes. "Who are you?" He doesn't recognize me!

"Someone who wished they never met you." I spat at him. I'm usually a forgiving person but bullying me everyday since I was seven is hard to forgive.

His face twists in confusion. "What?"

I ignore him and walk out of the room, I don't want to deal with him; this is supposed to be the best summer of my life. Why does he have to ruin it?

"Wait! Hold on for a minute!" He calls after me. The next thing I know he's in front of me holding my shoulders so I won't move. I feel a spark go down my arms, but I instantly shake it off. "What did I ever do to you? I don't even know you?"

"You know me Troy, you knew me since I was seven." I reply icily. He looks me straight in the eyes. All I can see are confusion in his. I wonder what he sees in mine.

"What? Just tell me who you are!" He complains. I sigh and push him away from me.

"My name is Gabriella. Gabriella Montez." I finally tell him my name. His eyes widen and his mouth drops. I roll my eyes and run down the stairs. I need something to drink. I go to the fridge and pull out a bottle of Sunny D. A few seconds later, I see Troy come into the kitchen still staring at me.

"What?" I ask coldly. I was always nice to him when I was younger, but screw that now, he doesn't deserve my respect.

"Are you really Gabriella?" he asks softly trying to look me in the eye.

"No shit Sherlock. Are you deaf now?" I answer glaring into his ocean blue eyes. He shook his head as if he were imagining this.

"I don't believe you." He tells me. He doesn't believe me!? Well I'll prove it to him. I lift up my sweatshirt and my tank top to show him a scar on left my side.

"That's what you gave me when you pushed me out of Jen's tree house because you wondered how loud the thud would be." I say softly pointing at the scar. I pull my sweatshirt back down and lift up my jeans on my right leg. I turn around to show him a scar on the back of my leg. "That was when you threw fire cracker at me because you were bored." I put my jeans down and pull one on of my sleeves up. I point my elbow to him. "This was when…" I didn't get to finish because he interrupted me.

"I accidentally almost hit you with my car because I was making out with some girl." He finishes off looking at me breathing deeply.

"Yup."

"I'm sorry." Troy whispers looking down. Boy said what? I look at him disbelievingly. I bet he's only saying sorry because I changed my look.

"You're sorry?" I snap viciously at him. "You think one sorry will clear ten years, ten fucking years, of you bullying me? Well it's not. I think you're only saying you're sorry because I don't look like what I used to." I feel my eyes start to get wet. I hold it in because I promised myself I would never cry in front of him ever again.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, you don't understand…" He says. I never seen him so vulnerable. He was shaking his head over and over again.

"What's there to understand? You hate me! What's so hard about that!?" I scream at him, my body begins shaking as I grip the counter to steady myself.

"Gabriella, let me explain!" He begs. I just glare at him; all the hurt and anger are all coming out.

"You don't need an explaination for hating me. Even if you did, I don't think you deserve one!" I yell. My voice is starting to get hoarse.

"Gabriella, I…" He starts but I cut him off.

"I don't want to hear it." I tell him firmly.

"Gabriella please…" I'm about to slap him.

"Gabs we're back!" I hear my best friend's voice from the front door. I sigh in relief and run away from Troy. I see Jen carrying a bunch of bags but I hug her anyway.

"Jen you have the best timing ever!" I shout at her. She looks at me strangely.

"What?" She's confused because I usually tell her she has the worst timing.

"Troy is home. As in here. For the summer." I say in a low whisper. Her eyes widen.

"Oh shit." She looks at me worriedly. "Are you alright?"

Before I could even get a word out, Laura enters the house carrying more bags. "Troy!" Laura yells in surprise as he walks out of the kitchen. Her face is glowing. She is so happy to see him again. Can't say the same for me.

"Hey mom." Troy greets giving his mom a kiss on the cheek.

"What happened?" Jen mouths to me.

"Tell you later." I mouth back. Jack finally comes in the house with a couple more bags.

"Troy?" He says in disbelief.

"Hey dad." Troy greets grinning at his father. No hugs were exchanged yet because they were all carrying bags. "Hi Jen." He says kissing her cheek while I make sure I don't touch him.

"Hey Troy."

"What are you doing back?" Laura asks Troy as we all walk into the kitchen and begin putting the food where they belong. Jack took some steaks outside to grill.

"I haven't seen any of you in two years, so I decided to surprise you." Troy answers putting our ice cream into the freezer. I look at Jen helplessly ignoring all the conversation around me. She puts her hands together and pretends to go to sleep. I look at her strangely.

"His room." She whispers quietly to me. I suddenly realize that Troy and I can't both stay in his room. I feel woozy now.

"Laura." I say trying to get her attention.

"Yes sweetie?" She asks pulling herself out of a conversation with Troy.

"Where am I going to sleep?" I ask hesitantly. She looks at me confused. "Now that Troy's back, he's going to have his room." I explain.

"Oh honey, I didn't even realize that. I don't know. I'm sorry." She admits looking down. I guess this is where my perfect summer comes to an end.

"It's okay; I'll call my parents and tell them I'm going to Europe." My voice sounds sad. I can even hear it. Stupid Troy had to ruin everything.

"NO!" Jen screams. "Giggles, this is supposed to be our dream summer! You can't leave. Sleep on the couch! My room! It's only for a couple of weeks before the guest room is finished. Gabi!"

"Jen, I don't want to impose." I reply. After all the Bolton's did for me, I don't dare ask for anything else.

"Mommy, when is the guest room going to be finished?" Jen asks Laura, her eyes pleading.

"About four weeks." Laura answers looking sadly at her daughter.

"She can sleep in my room. I have a couch. I'll let her sleep in the bed." Troy speaks for the first time in this conversation. We all look at him in shock. Even Laura knows that I was never one Troy's favorites. I was about to object when Jen cut me off.

"Perfect!" She yells jumping excitedly. I look her in disbelief.

"Excuse us for a moment." I say to Troy and Laura, and grab Jen pulling her into the living room.

"What the hell Jen!" I whisper-yell at her.

"Please Giggles! It's only for four weeks! Please!" She's starting to give the puppy dog pout. Hey that's my thing!

"Jen you know that doesn't work on me." I remind her smugly.

"I'll buy you that buy you that new outfit you've wanted to get and the new book from the Twilight series." Damn it.

I sigh, she knows me too well. "Fine."

I cover my ears as she squeals loudly. "Yay! Yay! Yay!"

"Whatever." I grumble as she pulls me back into the kitchen. I notice Troy is outside with Jack.

"What's the verdict?" Laura asks us curiously.

"She's staying!" Jen answers happily. Laura laughs and shakes her head.

"What did she say she'll buy you?" She asks me. I look at her and shock before I start laughing.

"How'd you know?" I ask her. She simply shrugs.

"She's my daughter."

Jen and I start cracking up. Maybe staying wouldn't be so bad after all.

"What's so funny?" Troy asks as he closes the back door.

"Nothing, just girl stuff." Laura replies. Wow, she always know exactly what to say. Troy shakes his head.

"I'm guessing Gabriella's staying?"

"Yup!" Jen yells bouncing up and down. I sigh and put my head on the counter.

"Looks like you and I are going to be spending the next four weeks in the same room." Troy whispers in my ear, his hand resting at the bottom of my back. I groan as he leaves for the backyard again. This summer is going to be very interesting.

**A.N. I'm so sorry I haven't put anything up in forever! I've been so busy! I hope you like this new story. I also am working on a two-shot. For all the Never Too Late readers, the next chapter is going to be up this weekend. I hope. Maybe. Keep your eyes open for it! Oh and I'm so sorry for the people how are reading I'll Be There For You. It's on hold for right now. Sorry!**

**As most of you know, HSM3 is on its way and they have new characters. The Disney people have to make this movie big because it's the final one with the original cast. I hope the movie doesn't get screwed up. Here are some things they can't do.**

**They can't change the couples. Especially not Troyella because that's the couple that got HSM started. They absolutely CANNOT change Troyella. Sorry Tropay fans!**

**They can't focus too much on the new characters because it's the last movie with the original cast. **

**They cannot separate Troyella! That would be so sad!**

**They can't give a main character a few lines like what they did to Vanessa in HSM2. She barely had any screen time! **

**Well, that all I can think of right now. That's just my opinion. No flames please. Look out for more stories from me soon!**

**-Victoria xoxoxo**


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N. PLEASE READ! Thanks for all the great reviews! To all the Never Too Late readers, I'm so sorry! I know I was supposed to put a new chapter last weekend. I thought about it, and I decided to remake the chapter into Troy's point of view since the story is centered on him. I haven't had the time yet because I was so pissed off at iTunes. They fucking lost five of my songs. I looked everywhere but their gone. I promise the next chapter is going to be better! This chapter is to give you information about some of the upcoming characters and hints of what going to happen in the story. The ages of the characters are…**

**Gabriella and Jen: 17 ½ (Gabriella's turning 18 somewhere in this story.)**

**Troy: 20**

**Matt and Amanda (who are coming in the next chapter): 28 (Matt is older by four months)**

**Edward (Matt and Amanda's son): 4**

**BTW, I don't own anything! Except the plot and OC's. **

Chapter Two

**We** all sit around the ten people table for dinner. Jack grilled up some steaks, and Laura cooked like a whole bunch of stuff for Troy, happy he finally visited. Jack and Laura at the two heads of the table, then me on Laura's left, next to Jen, then Troy. Jack and Laura start a conversation about who was picking Matt and his family up at the airport tomorrow, and Troy carelessly eats his food. I turn to Jen and pinch her arm to get her attention because she started playing with her food.

"Ow!" She yelps after I pinched her left arm. Everyone looks at her weirdly as I hold in my laugh. "I bit my tongue."

I almost laugh at her excuse but I cough to cover it up. They all slowly carry on with what they were doing suspiciously.

"What was that for?" She asks turning to me.

"What if Troy tries to kill me in my sleep?" I whisper my fear to her. After what he said to me in the kitchen, I started to think of all the possibilities he could do to me while I was sleeping. She looks at me disbelievingly before cracking up. "Seriously, he hates me. Do you know what he could do to me if I'm sleeping?"

"Gabi, he's not going to kill you in your sleep or torture you." Her tone was light, humorous, she didn't sound convincing at all. I stuff a slice of steak in my mouth, chewing it quickly. Torture me!? I didn't even think of that!

"He almost ran me over with a car." I remind her playing with my fork. She was about to say it was an accident, but another voice cuts her off.

"I'm not going to kill you in your sleep Gabriella." Troy's voice rings in my ears. My name smoothly coming out of his mouth. He was listening to our conversation. Oh goodness he didn't say he wouldn't torture me. "Or torture you. And you know that car thing was an accident."

I fake smile at him and nod. "Of course." Sarcasm was definitely my thing. Troy didn't seem to hear the sarcasm because he just smiles and continues to eat.

"So what do you want to do tomorrow on our first official day of summer before Matt and Amanda come with Edward?" Jen asks before taking a bite of her mash potatoes.

"I don't know. How about we go to Kelly's for lunch?" I suggest. Kelly's was a really cool local diner with great food that has been in our town forever.

"Sure. We should call Austin and Zeke too." Jen agrees. Austin and Jen have been going out since like forever! They make such a cute couple. It's so funny because they are both obsessed over each other. It's sickly adorable.

Zeke is one of the coolest guys ever. He moved to Albuquerque from Texas in the beginning of junior year. He's like my big brother. Jen suggested that we go out, but Zeke and I aren't into each other like that. I love him, but not that way, and I never will. I always thought Zeke was Sharpay's type. Sharpay, Chad, and Taylor haven't visited in two years too. I wonder why they didn't come with Troy.

"I'll come with you guys Jen." Troy responds. "Who the hell is Zeke?" Troy asks Jen, looking at her curiously. I almost threw my fork at him when he said he was coming. Troy knows all about Austin and Jen. It sickens him.

"Zeke is someone you didn't meet yet. He came during our junior year. He's like one of the coolest people ever!" Jen exclaims. I can't help but agree with her.

"He's was captain of the basketball team during our senior year." I add. Troy looks at me with interest. "Oh by they way Troy, where is everyone else, I was hoping that they came along too?" He seems surprised that I was speaking to him politely. I didn't want to get into a fight with him in front of everyone.

He clears his throat. "Their coming. They decided to spend a few weeks in LA though."

I nod happy I was going to see my friends again.

**After** dinner Jen and I went to Troy's room so I could finish up unpacking. I didn't have a chance to because I fell asleep.

As we were walking up the stairs Jen looks at me with that glint in her eyes. "Are you going to hook up with anyone this summer?" she asks.

I roll my eyes. Here we go again. "I don't know. Probably not."

"Why not?" She asks. Jen has always tried to hook me up with someone but I'd always refuse.

"Because nobody interests me." This was very true. I know mostly everyone in town and most aren't my type. "Maybe I'll find someone in LA."

"Hey, wait up!" Troy's voice calls from the stairs as we entered his room.

"What?" I sneer at him. I can be mean to him now. My tone shocks him. I bet he was thinking I was going to be nice to him. Bitch please.

"I need to finish unpacking too." Oh crap, I forgot we were sharing a room after the whole dating conversation. "How I take half of the dresser, and half of the closet. You can take the other halves. The stuff that doesn't fit, we'll just leave in our suitcases." When did he get so smart?

"When did you get so smart?" Jen asks. It's like she can read my mind. Creepy.

"I was thinking about it earlier." We nod as I grab my suitcase and lay it on the bed. I open it swiftly taking my clothes out slowly so I don't mess up their folding, while Jen puts them where they belong. It didn't take long, only about forty five minutes.

One thing I love about the Bolton house is that it has so many bathrooms. Each room has its own bathroom, so I guess I have to share Troy's. The last thing I have to put away is my bathroom stuff. I grab the bag that has all the things I need that belong in the bathroom, and start walking towards it, but I tripped on the rug. I close my eyes and brace my body for the fall. I can hear Jen scream my name. The next thing I know is that there are strong arms around me. I open my eyes and the only thing I see is blue. I become breathless.

"How did you do that?" I manage to get out panting. Jen ran over to us and starts fanning me asking me if I was okay over and over again.

"I'm fine Jen." I assure her. "My body didn't even hit the ground." I realize that I'm still in Troy's arms. They are so warm and cozy. Wait, what the hell am I saying?! "You can let go of me you know." I say hastily to Troy as he stares down at me. My voice sounds mean, even to me.

Troy lets go of me as I steady myself on my feet. I see a tint of pink in his cheeks. Yikes. "Sorry." I hear him mumble.

"Thanks." I say softly. I look at Jen and her eyes are shifting from Troy to me repeatedly. She was about to say something when her ring tone for Austin blasts through the room.

_You are my baby love, my baby love  
You make the sun come up Oh boy (oh boy)  
You're my every, everything that I could ever dream of  
You are my baby love, my baby love  
You make the sun come up Oh boy (oh boy)  
You're my every, every, every, everything_

I smile as I see her face lit up. She's so in love with him. I hope I can find someone for me. Someday. Jen blushes as she sees the look on Troy's grossed out face. I smile at their sibling moment.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." She says running out of the room. "Night!"

I laugh at her weirdness. "Night!" I call back at her.

"Tomorrow?" Troy asks fixing the couch to be his bed. I roll my eyes at him for forgetting about how long Austin and Jen can talk.

"I'm not surprised you don't remember that Jen and Austin spend all night talking." I remind him coldly. I see him staring at me. Like he's trying to read my mind. That's it, its so hard being mean to him the way he's looking at me. I'll go for the ignoring option now. I go into the bathroom to change into some shorts and a tank top as my pajamas. When I walk out I see Troy already in his boxers. I got to admit, he's hot. You'd be blind not to see it, but I know I'm immune to his charm from all those years of his torture. I think. Pretty sure. Troy settles himself on the couch and turns on the T.V.

"What do you want to watch?" He asks me flipping through the channels. It pisses me off so much that he's acting like we're friends and he never bullied me before. Dumb ass! I really want to stick my tongue out at him, but I don't, sadly.

"Nothing." I tell him simply wrapping myself in the sheets, plugging my headphones into my ears, listening to my iPhone. As I was listening to music, I got a text from Jen telling me we are meeting the boys at noon. For the first night in sharing a room with Troy, I waited until he was asleep until I fell asleep. I know I feel asleep still listening to music because I was too tired to take them off.

**This** time I was awaken by sunshine, which I'm very happy about. I go to take my headphones out of my ears eyes but they are already gone. Laura must have taken it off when I was sleeping as she did her usual check-ups on us. I locate my iPhone on the computer desk. It's eleven fifteen, I read from the clock. Shit! I have to get ready to go to Kelly's.

I notice Troy wasn't sleeping on the couch and my eyes widen. Did he do anything to me when I was sleeping? I run to the bathroom, turn on the water, and inspect my body for damages. When I find none, I sigh in relief. One night down. I strip out of my clothes and hop into the shower. I sigh deeply; the hot water is like washing away all my stress. I spend another twenty minutes in there. I wrap my towel around my body. When I walk out of the bathroom, Troy's sitting on the bed watching T.V. His eyes lead to me and they widen. My eyes widen as well. I clutch the towel closer to my body hoping it doesn't fall. He just stares at me!

"Troy!" I yell. He jumps and tries to look innocent. "Out!" I point to the door repeatedly wanting him out.

"Okay!" Troy exclaims. "By the way, you look…"

I cut him off before he could even say anything, "Don't you dare finish that sentence! OUT!" I scream. He runs out of the room before another word is said. This is going to be a long four weeks. I walk over to the closet and pull out a red tank top and a white baby tee to go over my tank top. I then grab my underwear, bra, socks, and denim shorts from the drawer. I slid on my clothes and get some silver hoop earrings and a silver long chained heart necklace, with a 'G' incrusted in the middle, out of my jewelry box and put them on.

I grab my red converses and slip them on then run my way to the bathroom. I quickly dry my hair and put on some eyeliner and lip gloss. I grab my purse and cell, and take one more look at myself. I look really chill. I'm not in the mood to wear expensive uncomfortable stuff right now. I run downstairs seeing Troy and Jen already waiting for me.

"Good morning sunshine!" Jen greets. I greet her back smiling but just ignored Troy with a frown. "I sent Troy to wake you up while I was getting ready but you already woke up." So it was her fault! I'll talk to her about it later.

Jen looks chill too. She's wearing shorts, a pick tank top and a white cropped jacket with white flip-flops. I finally look at Troy, and he's wearing a button down plaid blue and white shirt with jeans and some white Nikes. I have to stop checking him out. _You hate him! He hates you. He bullied you for ten years! _The thought makes me glare at his perfect features. We all walk down to the drive way.

"Whose car?" I ask looking at my beautiful black on black Porsche my daddy bought me for my sixteenth birthday. I look at Troy's black escalade and Jen's red convertible. Either car would be good.

"Troy's escalade." Jen answers. Good idea. Maybe I might _accidentally _spill something into his precious car. I grin at my thoughts.

"My car?!" Troy responds incredulously. He doesn't him too happy. Ha. Ha. And another HA!

"Yup, we can go to the mall after and your car has the most space for our bags." I'm so proud of Jen right now!

"Fine." Troy grumbles in defeat. I walk over to the back seat, but Jen quickly opens the door to the passenger seat and pushes me in.

"Jen!" I exclaim in shock. Why the hell did she do that?! She slides into the back seat and grins from ear to ear. She's up to something!

"I guess your sitting up front with me." Troy says starting up the car.

"Lucky me." I mumble sarcastically. This boy better drive fast. Troy takes so long just to pull out of the drive way. I'm getting frustrated!

"Troy!" I yell. "Will you just drive!?" My voice sounds desperate and irritated. He starts driving at a normal speed. This is going to be a long day.


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. PLEASE READ! I really have to thank you guys for the reviews! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! All the reviews I've got are really motivating me to update faster. The more reviews I get, I just want to give more chapters for you guys! So after I posted the last one, I immediately started on this one! I redid it like three times.**

**Okay, so I've got reviews of people telling me Gabi's mean and you feel sorry for Troy. She's supposed to be mean, but you're not supposed to be sorry for him. At the end of the chapter, read the A.N. It's important. Trust me. To show you all my vision of how Troy was mean to her in the past, I'm going to put flashbacks in this chapter.**

**For all my Never Too Late readers, I think I'll be putting up the new chapter up next weekend. It's different and weird doing a man's point of view for me, so it's taking up more time than this one. I hope you review this chapter! Love you people!**

**Disclaimer- Sadly, I don't own anything except plot and OC's.**

**Italic- Flashback! Or lyrics!**

Chapter Three

**We** get to Kelly's in about ten minutes because it isn't that far, just in the middle of town. Troy parks the car in the closest parking space (even though it was really far compared to other parking spaces.) so we don't have to walk that far. When I get out of the car, I see Zeke and Austin messing around in front of the door, saying random things to people. They're idiots but I love them, as big brothers. They're my best friends. While Jen fills Troy in about Zeke, I run up to them and jump on Zeke's back.

"Hi boys!" I greet excitedly. I haven't seen them in forever. Okay, that was a lie; I haven't seen them in two days.

"Hey Gabs!" Zeke greets pulling his arms around my legs that are around his waist to make it easier to carry me.

"Gabster!" Austin exclaims as we did our really awesome handshake as I was still on Zeke's back.

"My turn!" Zeke says loudly, making people stare, as I get off his back and we do the same handshake. Us three came up with it when Jen was taking hours spending the gift cards to American Eagle, Hollister, and Aeropostale we gave her for her birthday last year and we got tired of chasing her around the mall.

"Baby!" Jen squeals as she runs into Austin's arms. She kisses him lightly on the lips. That right there is true love.

"Hey beautiful." Austin replies. You can see love practically radiating off him. Zeke and I look at each other, both of us sticking our tongue out. We chuckle and look back at the couple. They greet each other like they haven't seen each other in years. We hear a cough from the side. We forgot about Troy!

"Hey dude! Long time no see!" Austin exclaims as he and Troy exchange a "manly" hug. He and Troy had always been friends. Zeke stands there awkwardly because he doesn't know Troy. I give him a comforting smile and hook on to his arm.

I see Austin wraps his arms around Jen when he caught a guy walking out the door checking her out. That boy has jealously problems. He even called me for two weeks every night to make sure she was still in love with him when she was working on a project with somebody else! Troy turns to us and looks at Zeke for a brief second before staring at our hooked arms.

He holds his hand out smiling softly. "I'm Troy."

I see Zeke's eyes widen, but he smiles anyway. He looks funny. I let out a small laugh. He knows all about me and Troy's past. "Zeke."

He nudges me softly. "What?" I ask as we enter Kelly's.

"That's _the_ Troy?" Zeke asks. I nod my head watching the hostess from West High give Troy a seductive look. It was weird because he didn't even acknowledge her, but just kept walking. "He doesn't seem that bad."

I scoff, did he listen to any of the stories I told him? Before I could object, the hostess brought us to a booth. "Your waiter will be with you in a moment." She tells us as we seated, giving Troy an unnecessary smile. He doesn't seem to notice because his face is covered with the menu.

In the half circle booth, Austin is sitting at the end, next to Jen, then me, Zeke, and at the other end, Troy. I don't need to pick up my menu because I already know what I want. Two minutes later, a good looking blond guy comes out and walks to our table. I know he's new on the job because I don't know him.

"What drinks can I get you today?" He asks not looking up from his notepad. I read his nametag, saying 'Tim'. You could tell easily he didn't like his job.

"Coke." Jen tells him.

"Coke." Austin says of course. They like the same things. It's so weird.

"Fruit punch." Nobody knows why, but Zeke is obsessed with that drink, he has to drink it at least twice a day.

"Root beer." Troy adds. I look at with my nose scrunched; I never knew he liked root beer. When we were younger he always told me only losers, freaks, and geeks drink it because it was my favorite drink.

"Root beer." I tell Tim softly. He finally looks up and stares at me. I become uncomfortable because I hate to be stared at. Especially by guys.

"I can get you anything you want baby." Is he trying to sound sexy? He's not succeeding. I gape at him for a second, hoping I imagined the double meaning of his words. I can feel everyone's eyes on me, wondering what I was going to do.

"Oh yeah?" I ask indicating him to come closer; he instantly leans closer and nods his head. I only see a shocked expression on Troy's face because the others have already seen this happen. I tell him to lean closer until his ear was close enough.

"I want you…"I pause briefly to see his reaction. He's grinning from ear to ear. "…to GET OUT OF MY FACE!" I say loudly. He flinches away looking at me in shock. I see everyone laughing as Tim runs back into the kitchen.

"That was priceless." Austin comments as we pounded fists. Jen high-fives me laughing at Troy's disbelieving face. Zeke is shaking his head chuckling. I shrug carelessly. It happens all the time. A couple minutes later, a waiter I knew came to the table.

"Hey Chucky!" We greet, except Troy. He's on the football team at East High.

"Hi buddies, and guy I don't know." He replies as he takes out his pad and writes something down.

"Troy." Troy introduces himself.

"Ah, Jen's brother." Chucky says. "I'm Chucky."

"Why are you taking our order?" Jen asks. Yeah! Why?

"Shelly fired him when she found out he what happened." Chucky explains. Ha ha. Sucks for Tim. Shelly was the great grand-daughter of the Kelly who started this diner. We've known her forever. She's like our auntie.

"Sweet." Zeke comments. I can't disagree. I look at Troy and find him staring at me. He doesn't even look away after I caught him. We just stare at each, trying to guess what the other is thinking.

"What can I get you today?" Chucky breaks our stare and we tell him what we want. I order the ravioli. "I'll be back in a few!"

When Chucky left, Jen and Austin start arguing about who loves who more (very disturbing), and Zeke and Troy converse over basketball games. I want to join them but Zeke's words kept repeating in my head, _"He doesn't seem that bad." _Whatever! Did he listen to anything I've said? Seriously. My mind drifts to when Troy threw that firecracker at me…

"_It's finally a new year!" Jen exclaimed jumping up and down excitedly pulling me to jump with her. I was excited too. We're going to middle school! No more grade school for us people! We are in her back yard jumping up and down. We look ridiculous but we don't care. I feel a hard push on my back and the next thing I know is that I'm face down on the ground. I groan in pain, clutching my ankle. I think it's broken. I can hear Troy laughing at me._

"_Awww, is little Geeky Gabi hurt?" He cooed to me while I was still on the floor. He pressed on it lightly making me flinch. I couldn't get up. My ankle hurts too much, especially with Troy pushing on it. I wanted to call my parents but they were inside and I couldn't find my voice. The pain was too much._

"_Troy! You're such a butt crack!" Jen exclaimed at my side looking at my swelling ankle, trying to push Troy's foot off it._

"_Not my fault you're freak of a friend was in my way." Troy spat at her but looking in my direction. I wanted to shrink under is hateful gaze. I have no idea what's his problem._

"_What's your deal?!" Jen asked him punching his arm. "Dude, I just want to tear you're face off you jerk!" She yelled walking toward him while he backed away, finally taking his foot off making me sigh._

"_Jen!" I try to call but my voice came out as a whisper. I wince in pain._

"_I don't care if you're my brother, I'm going to rip your testicles off and make you eat them!" Jen continued. _

"_Jen!" I called louder, but she didn't hear me. She keeps yelling at Troy, which is no problem to me but I need help. My ankle is turning purple. Troy rolls his eyes and tosses a lighted firecracker at me without Jen noticing because she was too busy telling him what harm she was going to do to him._

_My eyes widen as the firecracker goes off, I start to whimper. It starts popping, getting Jen's attention. I try to pull my body away from it but it started to burn my broken ankle making me sob. Jen tries to kick it away but Troy just kicks it back, amused. When the firecracker stops, I felt the pain and let out a desperate cry._

"_Matt!" Jen yells as she sees him walking through the back gate with his girlfriend Amanda after they went for a walk. They were on their winter spring break and flew in from New York._

"_See you bitch." Troy tells me jumping the fence, knowing he was in trouble._

_Matt and Amanda ran over to me worriedly. I can barely see them because tears are blurring my vision. _

"_Gabi!" Matt exclaims picking me up bridal style. Amanda rubs my arm that is out trying to sooth me. "Calm down sweetie." _

"_I'm going to kill Troy!" Amanda says angrily to Matt. He just sighs and nods his head. He was always so calm in bad situations, no matter how much of a goofball he is. He kissed my forehead trying to comfort me as he carried me into the house. Jen walked with us telling the two what happened._

"_And then I called you two." Jen finished as Matt set me down on the couch carefully._

"_What are you ki- Oh my goodness! My baby!" My mom exclaimed as she walked into the living room, hearing us come in. She ran towards me and inspected my ankle. I whimpered when she touched it. "Robert!" she called for dad. "Jack! Laura!" And everyone else. They all came running in hearing the desperation in my mom's voice._

"_Oh dear god, what happened to my baby girl?" My dad murmured stroking my hair as the Bolton parents got the story from Jen._

"_Troy is so going to pay for this." Jack said shaking his head in disappointment._

"_I can't believe he did this. Maria, Rob, we're so sorry." Laura told my parents. They are such good friends and Laura didn't want to ruin the friendship, because of Troy's doings._

"_It's alright, Laura. Let's just get her to the emergency room." My mom replied. Daddy agreed asking Matt to carry me. We all got into two cars. Jack, Laura, Amanda, and Matt in the first car. Me, mom, dad, and Jen in the other. _

_When it was finally my turn to see the doctor, I found out my ankle was broken and slightly burnt from the firecracker. I will have to wear a cast for a couple of months. Well, this sucks. I was taken home right after. I promised Jen I would call her if I needed anything. When I woke up the next morning, Jen called me saying Troy stayed over at Chad's (Who yelled at Troy too.) and he was grounded for twice as many months as long as I had to wear my cast. That was a New Year I never was going to forget._

Or the time he time he almost ran me over with a car when I was fourteen…

"_Move it freak." Troy demanded coldly as he walked past the door with his new Barbie girlfriend. She laughed a completely false giggle making me roll my eyes. I walked back to Jen in the driveway who was setting up the cards so we could play speed. The only car in the drive way was Troy's new car, and he wasn't getting his license until tomorrow but got the key today. I sat down opposite of Jen and picked up my cards. I look over and see Troy and Barbie (I don't know her name.) making out in this car. I roll my eyes again, grossed out._

"_Disgusting." Jen comments obviously noticing what I had seen. I nodded in agreement and we started our game._

"_Speed!" I yelled as I put my last card down, making me win. Jen groaned._

"_Okay, okay, two out of three." She said shuffling the cards. "Wait, I'm going to get something to drink. Do you want something?"_

"_A root beer." I reply fixing our cards for our next game. As I was doing this, I didn't realize that Troy's car was backing up._

"_GABI!" Jen yelled in horror as she saw the car coming closer to me dropping our drinks. My head pops up and I see Troy's car backing up on me. I scream and then someone tackled me to the grass scraping my elbow on the cement. I opened to find Chad on top of me panting heavily. My elbow starts to sting._

"_Owww!" I groan from the pain of being tackled to the ground and having my elbow sanded against the cement._

"_Gabs? Are you okay?" Chad asks as I sit up. It finally hits me that he saved me and I jump in his arms._

"_Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I say hugging him tight. _

"_You're welcome." Chad says kissing my forehead. He's always been my big brother. I look over his shoulder and see Barbie running down the street while Taylor, Sharpay, and Jen attack Troy, yelling so many things at him. When Sharpay catches my eye, all three of them run to me and start asking a whole bunch of questions making my head spin. Chad let's go of me and walks over to Troy. I can hear him yelling over the girls' voices._

"_I'm fine guys!" My voice cracked. They look at me disbelievingly. "Okay, my elbow got scraped." I admit sheepishly. They help me to my feet as we walk in to get a band-aid for my elbow that started to bleed. I ignore Troy and Chad arguing as we walk back outside to hang out. Later that night, Jen told me Troy got his car taken away._

"Gabs!" I hear my name being called and my head turns whoever was speaking. "Are you okay?" Jen asks. I look at everyone's worried faces, even Troy. Not normal.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Have I been acting weird?

"You were staring at nothing for like eight minutes." Zeke replies looking at me with questions in his eyes.

"Oh it's nothing. I was just thinking about something." That wasn't a lie. They seemed to believe because they went back to whatever they were doing. Two minutes later our food came. Yummy! When I was about to stick a ravioli in my mouth, Shelly comes up to our booth.

"Gabriella, do you mind singing?" She asks me. "You're fans have been wondering where you are."

I laugh and shake my head. "Fans? I don't know."

"Yes fans little lady. Everyone is asking where that girl is with the voice of an angel." I hate it when she sweet talks me. I can't refuse.

"Okay, but can I eat first?" I ask holding up my ravioli with my fork as people chuckle around me.

"Of course dear, come see me when you're ready." She replies walking away, saying her good-byes to the others.

"You sing?" Troy asks with insulting shock. I simply nod my head and continue eating, hoping to get off that subject.

"Yeah, her voice is amazing! People ask for her all the time to sing!" Jen adds. I look at her telling her to shut up but she just smiles innocently. I pout and shove ravioli in my mouth. Zeke laughs and puts his arm around me teasing me about my insecurity for my singing. I finish up my food and get out of the booth.

"I'll see you on stage." I tell them to go talk to Shelly. We walk to the small stage in the middle of the east wall. People start cheering once I get up there. I can hear Jen, Austin, and Zeke above the crowd. What a big surprise.

"Here's the crowd favorite; Gabriella Montez!" Shelly introduces as the song I chose played through the speakers.

_Seems like just yesterday  
You were a part of me  
I used to stand so tall  
I used to be so strong  
Your arms around me tight  
Everything, it felt so right  
Unbreakable, like nothin' could go wrong  
Now I can't breathe  
No, I can't sleep  
I'm barely hanging on_

_Here I am, once again  
I'm torn into pieces  
Can't deny it, can't pretend  
Just thought you were the one  
Broken up, deep inside  
But you won't get to see the tears I cry  
Behind these hazel eyes_

_I told you everything  
Opened up and let you in  
You made me feel alright  
For once in my life  
Now all that's left of me  
Is what I pretend to be  
So together, but so broken up inside  
'Cause I can't breathe  
No, I can't sleep  
I'm barely hangin' on_

_Here I am, once again  
I'm torn into pieces  
Can't deny it, can't pretend  
Just thought you were the one  
Broken up, deep inside  
But you won't get to see the tears I cry  
Behind these hazel eyes_

_Swallow me then spit me out  
For hating you, I blame myself  
Seeing you it kills me now  
No, I don't cry on the outside  
Anymore..._

_Here I am, once again  
I'm torn into pieces  
Can't deny it, can't pretend  
Just thought you were the one  
Broken up, deep inside  
But you won't get to see the tears I cry  
Behind these hazel eyes_

_Here I am, once again  
I'm torn into pieces  
Can't deny it, can't pretend  
Just thought you were the one  
Broken up, deep inside  
But you won't get to see the tears I cry  
Behind these hazel eyes_

When the song ends, there is immediate applause. I laugh and take a bow. "Thanks!" I say into the microphone before going back to the booth.

"You were great!" Jen exclaims hugging me. I laugh and thank her.

"That was awesome!" Austin adds as we do our handshake.

"Damn girl!" That was I need to hear from Zeke before he gives me a huge bear hug. I laugh as he sets me down. I look at Troy and he' still staring at the stage. I shrug at the weirdness of that. Jen snaps Troy out of his daze and we walk outside and I take a deep breath of fresh air. I just feel free, I don't know why, but singing always made me feel this way. Carefree.

"Do you want to go to the mall?" Jen asks as we sit on one of the benches outside the diner.

"No!" The boys instantly respond. I couldn't blame them. I love shopping, but Jen just doesn't know when to stop!

"I agree, how about we just hang out at your place?" I suggest.

Jen nods liking the idea. "Sure. I guess I can give my credit card a break."

I laugh run my hands through my hair. "That you should do." I tease.

"Shit, I can't come." Zeke tells us scratching his elbow.

"Why not?" Austin asks. Why? Why? Why? Why?

"I have to go out of town for my family reunion thing for a week remember?" Oh yeah! Well this sucks.

"Right! I forgot about that." Jen remembers.

"I have to go! I'll call you guys later. It was good meeting you Troy!" Zeke says after he gave me and Jen a hug, running to his car. I sigh as we walk to Troy's car.

"Where's your car?" I ask Austin as he got in the backseat with Jen.

"Zeke drove me because he knew I was going to leave with Jen anyway." He answers kissing Jen's temple. I laugh at how cute they are.

"You guys are adorable." I tell them as Troy starts the car. Again, it didn't take too long for us to get home. When we get there, we all go to the backyard; I run and get a basketball from Troy's room. Jack and Laura aren't home. I twirl the ball around my pointer finger. "Anybody want to play?" I ask.

"Not me!" Austin exclaims. The last time I played him, he got beat so bad, it was so hilarious. He made me promise not to tell anyone. I can beat him in basketball but he'll kick my ass in football.

"I suck at basketball." Jen answers. I can't disagree. She does.

"I'll play." Troy says taking his shirt off, coming from the house in basketball shorts. Damn!

"Okay." I reply. I love competition. I take my earrings and my necklace off and hand them to Jen. I also take off my baby t-shirt leaving me in my tank top.

"Ready to get your ass kicked?" I taunt. Troy has never seen me play before. No doubt he's going to be shocked. He looks at me, not believing I knew how to play. I put my hair up and smirk at him. This was going to be fun.

**Our** games were intense! We played for two hours straight trying to beat each other. First he won, and I wanted a re-match, then I won, and he wanted a re-match. It went on and on forever while Austin and Jen watched us amused by our competitiveness. We decided a tie. I lay down on the pool chair wiping my sweat off with a towel.

"You're good Montez. Where'd you learn to play like that?" Troy asks me from behind.

"Somewhere." I was too lazy to answer. Especially to him.

"That was awesome!" Jen exclaims running toward us with Austin. "You two are so good! You would never know who was going to win next."

"I thought Troy was going to kick your ass Gabs." Austin teases. I stick my tongue out at him and take a long gulp of water.

I was about to retaliate but someone interrupts. "We're back!" We hear from the front door.

Jen and I look at each other with wide eyes. We know that voice! We squeal and run to the door, with Troy and Austin following behind us.

"Amanda!" Jen and I yell as we hug her.

"Hey sisters!" Amanda greets. She looks at me closely. "Gabriella? Oh you look so gorgeous!" I smile and say thank you. They haven't seen my new look yet. I look at her oversized belly! My eyes widen. She's pregnant!

"You're pregnant!" I yell excited as she, Jen and I start squealing happily.

"Hi Amanda!" Troy exclaims hugging his sister-in law, careful with her stomach.

"Troy! I haven't seen you in a long time!" She replies hugging him back. "Austin!" She says when she spots him. He goes up to hug her hesitantly because of her stomach. "Don't worry; I'm not going to pop!" We all laugh at Austin's blushing face. Two seconds later, Jack and Laura walk in with some bags setting them down on the floor. Where are Matt and Eddie?

"Mommy!" A small voice squeals as Matt comes in with Edward at side reaching for his mother. Jen and I awed at him. He was the cutest thing ever! When Matt puts Edward down and he goes to hug his mother's leg. Jen and I instantly jump in Matt's arms.

"Jen! And person I don't know!" He yells confused, looking at me. He turns to Jen. "Where's Gabi?"

Jen rolls her eyes and point to me. "There."

"Gabi?" Matt asks in shock. I smile shyly and hug him.

"Hey Matt!" I greet. He's still staring at me in shock. This is awkward…

"GABI!" He yells more excitedly. "JEN!" He starts hugging us tightly making it hard to breathe.

"Are you sure that's your face?" He asks me. That was insulting.

"Do I have to prove it to you?" My tone is exasperated. He nods and runs into the kitchen, coming back with a washcloth. Uh-oh.

**After** Matt tried to scrub my face off, Austin had to go home and we all sat around the living room with Matt and Amanda telling us what's been going on in their lives. Oh! I'm Auntie Gabi to Edward now! He's so cute! Then something pops into my mind.

"Oh!" I gasp. "I forgot I bought you guys welcome back presents!" I tell them. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

They nod and Edward looks at me excitedly. I run upstairs and search for the three presents in my suitcase. I hear someone behind me and assume its Jen.

"Jen do you know where Amanda's pres- oh never mind." I say to the person behind me as I found Amanda's present. I turn around and lock eyes with Troy.

"Troy?" I ask icily. "What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk." He tells me bluntly sitting on the bed.

"About what?" I spat. There's nothing to talk about.

"Look, Gabriella, I know I've been a complete jerk to you, but can we start over. Be friends." Troy explains playing with his hands.

I look at him disbelievingly. "How do I know you aren't lying? Or you're just doing this because I look different?" I reply, the coldness in my voice sleeping away.

"Let me prove to you that I'm not that guy anymore." He sounds so sincere. I don't know what to say.

"Tell me the reason why you did it. All those years of your hateful deeds." I don't have to explain what I'm talking about.

He takes a deep breath. "I'll tell you when I'm ready." What? When he's ready?!

I scoff and try to make a move out the door, but he stops me pulling my arm. "Please Gabriella."

He looks me in the eyes, his honesty shining through them but I refuse to believe it.

"Friends?" he asks one more time. What am I supposed to say?!

**A.N. What should Gabriella do!? It's up to you reader to decide what she's going to pick! Is she going to be friends with Troy or is she going to refuse. Your choice! PLEASE REVIEW! **


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N. PLEASE READ! OMG! Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! I still can't believe it! THANK YOU! The feedback was awesome!**

**For all the Never Too Late readers, SORRY! The chapter still doesn't feel right to me. I keep on redoing it. I don't know when I'll put it up. Sorry!**

**Okay, you're going to find out her answer in this chapter! I hope I don't disappoint your expectations! **

Chapter Four

I stare at him, wondering what's going on through his head. He stares back at me waiting patiently for my answer. Does he expect to me to go running in his arms, happy we are going to be friends? No way in hell in this world. I need to think about this. What if he if doing his as a joke? What if he really wants to be my friend? What if he's doing this because I changed my look? What if he's doing this because he really wants to get to know me? I take a deep breath and open my mouth to say something but Jen's voice suddenly rings through my ears.

"GABS!" I jump and turn toward the door where Jen is standing. Troy turns to her too with his fists clenched. She is getting better at her timing. I owe her big. "Did you find their presents?" she asks eying Troy's fists.

"Yep." I reply making my voice happy again, or at least trying to. Her eyes looking into mine, already knowing something was up. She looks at Troy and raises her eyebrows. Oh yeah, she knew something was up.

Troy coughs and rubs the back of his neck. "I'll, uh, see you guys downstairs." He tells us walking swiftly out the door holding my gaze at him a little longer. Once Jen was sure he was out of an earshot, she turns to me with her eyes wide.

"What the hell was that?!" She exclaims pointing at the door where Troy was previously running through. Uh-Oh.

"Jen, we should be heading back downstairs now. We've been up here for…" Shit, I don't know how long we've been up here.

"Twenty minutes." Jen finishes smirking at me. Wow, twenty minutes. "Dinners already cooking. Matt sent me up here to check if you guys killed each other yet."

I sigh. I have to tell her. "He told me he wanted me to be friends." I admit quietly. Jen's eyes widen and she just stares at me. "Now that you know that, I'm going downstairs!" I trying to run out the door but she tackles me onto the couch. I groan as my attempt for my escape didn't work. I push her off me and stand up rubbing my head as she runs and closes the door.

"He what?!" She yells in disbelief shaking me by shoulders.

"He asked me to be friends." I tell her again trying to get her to stop shaking me. She stops shaking me and paces back and force. I look at her weirdly.

"Why would he want to be friends with you?" She says with a shocked look on her face. I scoff. Well that was a nice thing to say!

"Thanks Jen. Glad to know I'm not worth being his friend." I retort. She looks me apologetically.

"Gabs, not like that. Anyone would love to be your friend, but it's _Troy_. My brother Troy, the one that made your life a living hell." She explains sitting next to me on the bed. She has a point.

"I know." I reply biting me lip. "I don't know what to do! Jen tell me what to do!"

She shakes her head. "Sorry girl, it's your choice and I don't want to influence you on this decision. Plus, I suck at giving advice."

I laugh. "Thanks Jen." She always knows how to make me feel better.

She hooks my arm with hers and we stand up. "Let's go downstairs and give the presents out." Great idea!

I nod and grab the presents off the floor and follow her out the door. We walk down stairs and we see Matt tapping his foot impatiently. When he sees us, he immediately starts looking over my body. Jen and I look at him weirdly.

"What are you doing?" I ask as Jen tries to pull me away from Matt's grasp. I'm starting to feel uneasy.

"Jen let go!" He demands her checking my arm. "I'm checking if Troy did anything to her!"

Oh, that's reasonable. In the past, nobody left me alone with Troy. "He didn't do anything." I tell him pulling myself away. "I promise."

He looks at me unsure, and then nods his head. "Okay, now give me my presents!" He takes the presents out of my arms and runs into the living room. Jen and I look each other and laugh. Typical Matt. We run after him and Jen sits next to Edward, who's opening his present excitedly. I look over at Matt and he's doing the same. I giggle and walk over to the kitchen.

"Do you need any help?" I ask Laura as I see her setting the table and trying to put the food on the plates at the same time.

"Sure. Can you set the table while I finish up the food?" She answers. I nod and do what she told me to do. After I was done, she asked me to tell everyone that dinner is ready.

I run back into the living room, seeing Edward playing with the basketball Jen bought him and wearing the jersey I bought him, Matt fixing the time on his watch, and Amanda admiring the bracelet I got them. I smile at them as the give their thanks.

"Dinner's ready." I inform them as they instantly stand and run to the kitchen. Whoa, leave me here why don't you? I follow them and take my seat next to Jen. I see Troy sitting across from me. Great…. More awkwardness. I begin putting food on my plate while conversations float around the room. I can feel his eyes on me. Watching me. I shift in my seat uncomfortable under his gaze.

"He's staring at you." Jen whispers to me. I nod and breathe deeply.

"What should I do?" I whisper back. "I need to think about this."

She nods in agreement. "The lake." She tells me. The lake is the place Jen and I go to relax and clear our minds. It's great because nobody knows about it, but us and our family members. I look up and see Troy still staring at me. I have to get out of here!

"I'm going." I tell Jen finishing what little food I put on my plate.

"What? Aren't you going to eat dinner?" She's worried. I can hear it in her voice. "You can't just leave in the middle of everything. You've barely talked to Matt, Amanda, or Eddie."

"I need to get out of here and clear my head. By the way, I'm fine; you have nothing to worry about. I can talk to them tomorrow. We have all summer. Remember that." I answer getting up from my seat.

"Excuse me, I'm not that hungry. I'm just going to go for a walk." I tell everyone as the all look at me when I stand. Laura knew something was going on but Jen told her to keep quiet with her eyes. Jack nods and I slip out the back door, a short cut to the lake. It's only a five minute walk. When I get there, I sit on the bench by the shore and stare out at the sparkling water. It's so relaxing and calm. It's all your trouble just disappears.

Now's my time to think about the situation. Should I really give Troy a chance? I mean he said he would prove it to me, but I doubt it. What could he do? Punch himself in the face? I am going to go to the same school as him next year, and am going to be spending a lot of time together during the next four weeks with him; maybe it won't be that bad to be friends with him. I suddenly feel a presence with me. I'm not alone. I turn around and now I'm staring into those blue eyes of Troy Bolton. Oh wonderful….

"Hey." He greets giving me a small smile. I look at him curiously.

"What are you doing here?" I ask as he sits next to me on the bench. "How did you know where I would be?"

"You always come down to the lake when you need to think." How the monkey butts does he know that? I must've a look on my face because he chuckles. "I know more than you think I know."

"Yeah, I can see that." I reply scooting farther away from him. "Do you mind leaving so I can have my Gabriella time?" I ask him with fake sweetness dripping from every word that came out of my mouth. I smile innocently at him but I made my eyes hard. He sighs and grabs my hand. I look at him in shock and try to pull my hand away. He won't let go.

"We didn't get finish our conversation." He reminds me, pulling me closer. I sigh. I was afraid this was going to happen. What would happen if I tried to run away from him? I quickly pull away from his grasp and sprint away in the direction of the house. It only took him a moment to catch up with me. He grabs me by the waist and threw me over his shoulder. I grunt and hit his back yelling for him to stop.

"Troy! What the hell?! Put me down right now?!" I scream as he puts me down on the bench. I pout and stick my tongue out at him. I don't care if I seem childish. He made me mad.

He laughs and shakes his head. "You can't always run away." I open my mouth to protest but he cuts me off. "I'll catch you no matter what you do."

I pout more. "You smell ass!" I yell at him. He laughs at me more.

"Are you going to answer my question?" He asks. The mood completely changed from childishness to seriousness by that simple question. I take I deep breath. I have to do what's best for me.

"Yeah and I don't think we should be friends." I answer. His smile drops and that sparkle in his eyes disappear. I stare into them wondering where it went.

"I don't think we should be friends immediately." I clarify. He looks at me confused. "I can't just be instantly friends with you after all that. What did you expect? I need you to prove to me that you aren't that guy, who was such an egotistic smart ass shit face anymore." I pause as he laughs at my description of him. "No offence."

He shrugs it off. "None taken."

"You said it yourself you would prove it. That's all the convincing I need. Being friends are way to fast for me." I finish giving him a weak smile.

He looks content with what I've said and nods his head. "If we aren't friends what are we?"

Hmmm…Oh I know! "We are that thing between acquaintances and friends." I reply, happy with my answer. "Not quite friends but we know each other."

"I guess that's good enough." He sighs and rubs his palms together.

"We should be heading back…" I tell him standing up.

"Yeah, it's getting cold." He says rubbing his arms. I just realize how cold it is and that I forgot my jacket because I was so focused on getting out of the house. Great, I'm only wearing my tank top. Smart aren't I? I rub my arms quickly trying to heat up.

"Are you cold?" Troy asks me already shrugging off his jacket. I was about to protest but I decided I don't want to get sick during the summer.

I nod hesitantly as he puts his jacket over my shoulder. Maybe giving Troy a second chance wouldn't be so bad. Now I wonder how he's going to prove himself to me and how hard he's going to work at it, after all Troy Bolton is full of surprises…

**A.N. PLEASE READ! I hope you like this chapter. Sorry it's short, but there are longer chapters to come. I don't know if it was good or not, but I hope you did! A lot of you said they should be friend and a lot of you said they shouldn't, so I decided they shouldn't be friends so quickly, so Troy can prove himself. I have some ideas, but if you have any, let me know!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N. Thank you people so much for the reviews. 100 reviews in four chapters! Wow! I mean just wow! That's the most I've ever gotten in just four chapters! Thank you so much! **

**Again, I'm sorry that Never Too Late is coming slow. I don't know when the next chapter is going to be posted but hopefully soon. **

**There's a surprise in this chapter! D**

Chapter Five

**When **we walk back into the house through the front door, Jen, Laura, and Amanda are cleaning up while Matt was eating ice cream. Jen and Amanda are doing the dishes while Laura clears off the dining table. When we shut the door, they all look up. Their facial expressions change rapidly. Jen eyes are now wide with her right pointer finger directed to us accusingly. Laura and Amanda have a mixture of shock and curiosity on their faces. Matt's face was its own mixture; shock and horror. I have a lot of explaining to do. I smile innocently looking anywhere but them. I glance at Troy and he's just rubbing the back of his neck, refusing to look up.

"Well that's something you don't expect to see everyday!" Jen exclaims pointing her fingers from Troy and I. Amanda and Laura nod, still staring at us with the same look. Matt seems frozen. I instantly slip out of Troy's jacket and hand it back to him. He grabs it murmuring a thank you.

"Well this is awkward…" I mumble playing with a strand of curls from my head. Troy agrees quietly backing away. I gulp. I guess I have to tell them everything while they annoy me with thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of questions. I shudder just thinking about it. I look up at Troy who is still looking down. I hide my smile by biting my bottom lip and take a run for it. I run quickly into the living room but before I get upstairs, two strong arms wrap around my waist and throw me over their shoulder.

"Matt!" I yell pounding on his back. What the hell is it with people carrying me today? He sets me down on one of the dining chairs and holds me down by my shoulders. I look at Troy next to me and Amanda is sitting on his lap. He looks in pain. I laugh.

"Okay what is going on?" Matt demands, pacing back and forth. I immediately stop laughing and look at him. By this time, Jack put Edward to bed and was standing next Laura, confused at what was going on. Laura is standing in front of us, eager to know what had happened and Jen's impatient look stares at Matt. I bet she's mad at him because she didn't get to talk to me first.

"Are you guys friends?" Amanda asks. Troy groans as she pushes more weight on him when he tried to get out from under her.

"No." I reply honestly.

Matt gave me a look. "I'm not stupid. What the hell was the jacket thing? And you guys weren't arguing and…"

"We aren't friends!" Troy interrupts his brother, his arms defeated at his sides.

"We are that whatever thing between acquaintances and friends." I tell them. Everyone's face scrunched up.

"That's genius!" Jen praises, grinning proudly. We pounded fists and laugh.

"What?" Jack looks at us weirdly. "Is there even a thing that's between acquaintances and friends?"

"I guess." I reply shrugging. "Troy and I are living proof."

"How did this start?" Laura ask. I sigh and tell them what had happened. Troy adds a bit, but by the time we were done, everyone looks at us in disbelief except for Jen, who was waiting for this conversation to stop so she could talk to me alone.

"We need to talk." Matt demands to Troy. Amanda gives Matt a kiss as she gets off Troy and Matt and Jack pull Troy out of the room into the garage, with Laura following them. I wonder what they are going to talk about.

Amanda yawns. "I'm going to sleep, but you are so going to fill me in tomorrow Gabs!" She says walking away. "I need to get my sleep for the mall tomorrow."

Mall? Nobody tells me anything! I look at Jen questionably. "You were gone when we made plans." She says. I nod. We walk upstairs to Troy's room and I collapse on the bed.

"This was so unexpected." I state getting up to get my pajamas. I grab a pair of red basketball shorts and a white tank-top.

"For real." Jen agrees looking through my iPod music play list. "I wonder how he's going to prove it you." She's so enjoying this.

"Me too. You're brother is full of surprises."

"Can't disagree." Jen replies. "Oh you have the new Mariah Carey album. Sweet!"

I nod. "Be right back."

I quickly change out my clothes and get myself under the covers while Jen sits at the edge of the bed.

"What if my brother gets you a gigantic chocolate bunny!?" She exclaims randomly. I look at her bewildered for a second, but then I start cracking up.

"Where the hell did you get that idea?" I ask shaking from laughter.

She simply shrugs. "It's possible, and you are always obsessed with them during Easter."

I laugh more but I don't disagree. I always buy chocolate bunnies during Easter. "Maybe he might."

Jens opens her mouth for more suggestions but her phone rings. I roll my eyes. It's Austin again. Sometimes I get really jealous that Jen has someone loving her like that, but I'm so happy she has Austin. I want someone to love me too.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow. Good night girly." Jen says to me, dancing out the door. I smile and close my eyes. Right before I was going to fall into a dream, I hear a noise. I sit up but there was nobody there. I hear a groan from the floor, and there is Troy. He tripped. HA! I couldn't hold in my laugh. He instantly gets up and coughs.

"I'm cool. I'm okay." He says dusting himself.

"Sure." I reply laying back down.

"You still have to tell me why." I remind him. He knows what I'm talking about. He groans and goes to the couch.

"I'll tell you when I'm ready." He told me that already! I want to know. I _need _to know.

"Troy! Please tell me!" I plead desperately.

"It's secret Brie." Brie? Where the hell did that come from? Nobody ever called me that before. "I'll tell you when we're friends. Remember, friends keep secrets and we aren't friends."

I scowl at how he used that against me. "Fine." I reply regretfully. "Goodnight." I close my eyes tightly.

"Do you have a thing for Zeke?" Troy asks suddenly. My eyes fly open and I stare at him. He's sitting on the couch, only in his boxers, looking at me in the eyes. That boy is good looking. I just start laughing at his pathetic question.

"Me and Zeke? No way! Shoots, Zeke is cool and everything, but he has a girlfriend and he's one of my bestestestestestest friends." I explain. "Now, goodnight!"

Troy seems content with my answer. Lucky him, I want to know the answer to my question! "Sweet dreams."

"**Gabs! **Wake up!" I hear Jen yell at me. I keep my eyes tightly shut, refusing to wake up. "You have to see what's downstairs!" She tells me excitedly. I groan and roll over.

"Go away! Unless Zac Efron is downstairs, I don't want to move my body." I reply stuffing a pillow to my face. I peek at the clock and it's only eight thirty in the freaking morning! Jen pulls the blanket off me and puts on the couch where Troy is supposed to be, but he's not. She starts to say my name repeatedly knowing it would annoy me.

"Gabi, Gabi, Gabi, Gabi, Gabi, Gabi, Gabi…" I groan and throw my pillow at her before pulling myself out of the bed.

"I'm up." I state groggily. I notice Jen is still in her pajamas. Why the hell is she so excited? She grabs my hand and pulls me to the stairs. I see an afro! OMG! OMG! OMG! I quickly run down the down the stairs.

"Chad!" I yell in complete wonderful surprise. He turns from Troy and looks and me grinning from ear to ear. Troy must have filled him on my new look.

"GABSTER!" He yells three times as loud. I run into his arms and hug him tightly. "You look hot." He compliments once he puts me down. I blush and hug him again.

"I'm so happy to see you!" I exclaim. "Jen! Aren't you happy to see him?!" I yell as she just laughs.

"We had our reunion a couple hours ago." She replies. I nod in understanding and hug Chad again.

"GABI!" I hear two familiar voices yell. My head snaps up and my eyes see Taylor and Sharpay. I squeal loudly and jump into their open arms. Jen joins our squealing while the boys look at us weird.

"You look wonderful!" Sharpay comments as Taylor agrees.

"Kudos to Jen." I say pointing at Jen happily. She does a bow and laughs.

"When did you guys get here?" I asked them jumping up and down. I'm too happy to calm down.

"Two hours ago." Taylor answers looking at her watch. "We decided to give you more sleep." We all laugh and I thank them.

"Good idea." I tell them honestly.

"We all took showers!" Chad adds proudly. We look at him strangely before laughing. I missed him. He's so…Chad.

"Gosh, I missed you guys!" I exclaim as we all go into the dining room to eat breakfast, which Laura prepared. We all thank her and sit down. I fill my plate up with food as we all start conversations about how our lives are going. We also tell them about how Troy and I are between friends and acquaintances. They were shocked at first, but got over it. They all wanted to talk to Troy, except Jen, and came back ten minutes later. I wonder what they were talking about. Why does everyone need to talk to Troy after we tell them what happened? When they get back, it's like nothing happened. Everyone starts their own conversations.

Chad and Troy are talking about basketball, Jen and Taylor are talking about their boyfriends, and I turn to Sharpay. Time to play cupid. I don't care that Zeke has a girlfriend. She's a bitch anyway. I need to get Sharpay and Zeke together.

"So, are you dating anyone Shar?" I ask, taking a bite out of my bacon.

She shakes her head. "Sadly no." Perfect! "I heard you have a new friend…." She trails off so I can continue.

"His name is Zeke. Super awesome." I tell her, putting all my excitement on this topic.

"He sounds cool." She replies trying to sound uninterested, but I know she is. I nod as we change the subject and talk about my love life. It didn't last very long. Thank goodness.

**When** breakfast was over we all got changed, played a couple games of basketball, played guitar hero (coolest game ever!), and just chilled around the house until noon. Jen called Austin and asked if he wanted to join. Of course he said yes. He came while I was kicking Chad's ass in guitar hero. HA! Amanda and Matt couldn't come because they had an appointment with the doctor person that they forgot about.

At noon, we decided that the guys will ride in Chad's BMW, while we girls will ride in Sharpay's convertible. When we get to the mall, the girls and I instantly go into American Eagle first. Then we go to Nike, Coach, and Gucci with the guys following helplessly behind us.

On our way to Banana Republic, I see a girl so familiar kissing this guy. I stop in my tracks to see who she is because I'm getting a bad vibe. The others stop and look at me curiously. When the couple finally breaks apart, my eyes widen and my mouth falls to the damn floor. Oh hell fucking no! That girl is Shelly, Zeke's girlfriend! Kissing another guy, that isn't Zeke! My fists tighten as I glare at them. This is so fucked up.

"Jen," I say in a strained voice. "Guess who."

"Chicken poo?" She replies thinking I was joking.

"You're right; chicken shit that's cheating on our best friend!" I exclaim pointing at Shelly and whoever that guy was. Everyone turns there head in the direction where I'm looking. Jen's mouth drops. Austin's eyes are huge. Troy, Chad, Sharpay, and Taylor are confused because they don't understand what's going on. I slip out my phone and take a few pictures as they start to kiss again. I need proof of this bullshit to send to Zeke in case he doesn't believe me.

"Oh hell to the fucking no!" Jen yells. She looks at me, talking with her eyes. We are going to give Shelly a piece of our minds.

**A.N. Sorry I have to end it there, but please review! The next chapter will be coming soon! Sorry if it is suckish. It's really late here and I really wanted to put another chapter up for you guys.**

**BTW: Does anyone want to co-write a story with me??**

**Here are some facts about this fanfic!**

**1. It was supposed to be in Troy's POV**

**2. Troy and Gabriella were not supposed to hate each other.**

**3. Jen was supposed to be an older brother for Gabriella, not a bestfriend. **


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N. Thank you so much for all the reviews! So much. I'm still in shock, to be honest. Thank you, thank you, and thank you! **

**If you want to co-write a story with me; just pm me and tell me the plot of the story you have in mind. Thank you for all the feedback! **

**I try to update this story every week and I'm still working on my other one, but I've been completely swapped with end of the year homework. Sorry I couldn't update last week.**

_**pure vowels**_ **asked how far apart Troy, Gabriella and Jen are; they are two years apart. **

**Disclaimer: Do not own anything, but the plot. **

Chapter Six

As we walk (more like stomped) toward her, fire just flows through my veins. How could she do that to a guy like Zeke? I mean honestly!? I should have seen this coming. I can't believe she told Zeke she was going to spend the summer in Italy! Lair. When we reach Shelly, she's still kissing that guy. He is not even cute! He looks like a preppy rich smartass, except beaten up twenty million times. I glance over at Jen and you can practically see steam coming out of her head. Did I mention Jen has a bad temper? Well, she does, and even though I am really totally pissed, she is like beyond angrily totally pissed. It was smart of the rest of the group to stay back.

"Wait," I say to Jen holding her back as we almost reach Shelly. She looks at me strangely. "Let's find out what they're talking about. Maybe Shelly already did break with Zeke." Even though I had my doubts, I know that if Shelly broke up with Zeke, he would tell us immediately.

"Good idea."

We hide behind them as they start a conversation.

"When are you going to dump that ass wipe?" The guy whines. What? Oh hell no. How long has this been going on?

"Not yet, I'm dumping him when he gets back from his family reunion." Shelly smiles innocently. "It'll crush him." _I'm about to crush you bitch_. "He can't give me the pleasure you give me. I can't believe he wants to wait."

Slut. Slut. Slut! My fist tightens as me and Jen jump up from our hiding spots. Jen taps Shelly's shoulder roughly as I fold my arms glaring at this cheap two-timing slut.

"What the…" Shelly say turning around who tapped her. Once she was it's us, her eyes widen. That's right, be scared. "Jen…Gabriella." She gulps. The guy checks me and Jen out, with his arm still wrapped around Shelly's waist. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"Hey Shell." Jen greets her in a sickly sweet voice, putting her hand on her hip glaring through Shelly's head.

"So Shell, did you have fun in Italy?" I ask, venom laced into every word.

The guy gives her a strange look. "Italy? When did you go to Italy?"

Jen and I gasp in fake shock. "You never went to Italy?" Jen asks pretending to be astonished. I want to laugh because Jen is such a horrible actress, but I kept my facial expression shocked.

The guy with her answers for her. "Nope. She's been having a good time with me." Ew. I can feel my face twist in disgust. I glance at Jen, seeing her gag a little. The double meaning sticks out like a sore thumb. Shelly turns bright red.

"Oh really?" I ask looking up at the guy. He might be from West High. I've seen him before. Thank goodness Sharpay helped me with this acting stuff.

"Hell yeah. She's good." Is there a barf bag anywhere? Shelly hit the guy behind her trying to tell him to shut up with her eyes. It's so not working.

Jen laughs evilly. "Why not? I mean she is a cheap ass bitchy whore anyway."

Shelly's mouth drops. "Am not! You bitch!"

"You know, you're right." I tell her truthfully. She smiles at me. "You're a _two-timing_ cheap ass bitchy whore."

"Hey you can't talk to my girl like that!" The guy exclaims pulling Shelly towards him, almost falling back on the bench. Kind of a late reaction, don't you think? Now I know who he is! He's the guy that got his head stuck under some bed at a party last year because he was looking for his boxers. HA! What a man whore. They make a perfect couple. Hahaha.

Jen rolls her eyes. "Girl? Please, more like he she."

"Bitch please; you act like you aren't fucking every guy you see like you were in the middle of the year." Shelly snaps at Jen, looking her up and down. "Slut."

My mouth falls as Jen's eyes fill with tears. This was a sensitive subject for Jen because there was a rumor going on sometime this year that she slept with the whole football and basketball team and someone photo shopped pictures of her nude. That was the worst time in her life. I glance at her again, and see Austin walking toward her when he saw her crying. Now I'm more than angrily totally completely ultimately pissed off. I glare at Shelly viciously. Nobody messes with my friends.

"You better shove those words back up your mouth." I demand coldly.

"Oh yeah? What's the geek gone whore going to do about it?" She replies smirking, leaning onto that guy as he laughs. Where the hell did all this confidence come from? I take a step forward as my fists curl.

"I'm going to shove them right up your ass." I retort, stepping another step closer.

She laughs and steps away from the guy, standing in front of me so that our noses are touching. I'm not a fan of violence but I'm about to fuck this bitch up.

"Bring it." I want to laugh because she sounded like one of those cheerleaders in the Bring It On movies. I scoff and roll my eyes.

The next thing I know, there is a sharp sting going through my cheek. This whore just slapped me! I lunge toward her sending us to the floor. I hold her down between my legs as I punch the hell out of her. She managed to roll us over a get in a couple of slaps. I roll us back over and continue punching her while she pulled my hair. I hear a crack. I think I broke her nose. I feel arms wrap around my waist, and then suddenly being pulled away from her. I calm in Troy's arms for he was the one that pulled me away. That one dude is holding a thrashing cursing Shelly in his arms. He carried her out of the mall as one of the security guards came up to us, Troy letting go of me. It was weird. I suddenly felt cold. His arms felt so warm and cozy. My head snaps up as I hear the guard's voice.

"What happened here ladies?" he asked. Jen told him what happened and that she hit me first. He let me go with a warning. Probably because he knew who my parents are. Thank goodness. When he leaves, everyone suddenly surrounds me.

"Are you okay?"

"That was awesome! You totally kicked ass!"

"Are you alright? Are you still breathing? Alive?"

"Stupid! Of course she is! That was just damn!"

"You're the best best friend ever! I love you!"

"That was so nerve wrecking!"

My head began spinning with all of them in my face. "Okay! Shush!" I exclaim waving my arms around. The all shut up and look at me weirdly. "You guys gave me a headache." I groan and bury my face into Chad's chest since he was closet. I glance at Troy; he flashes me a small smile. I smile back slightly resting my forehead against Chad's chest.

"You okay?" He mouths. I nod truthfully. He smiles and then looks down. I wonder what made the floor so interesting. Maybe Shelly's blood. Joke! But there is some on the floor that dropped when I cracked her nose.

"I think we should head home." Taylor suggests. Taylor was always the motherly type in our group. We love her for it though. Especially Chad. Such a lovesick puppy, like a fluffy poodle. "That was enough excitement for one day."

We all agree immediately. Chad wrapps his arms around me and threw me over his shoulder. My eyes widened.

"What are you doing?" I ask as he walks out the door. The others laugh at my thrashing.

"Making sure you don't collapse on us after that." I sigh and relax until we reach the cars. Troy opens the door for me when Chad put me down. I think I'm going to get used to him sucking up. I climb in mumbling a thank you while everyone else got into the car they came in as well. The girls in rode with the music blasting and Sharpay lecturing me on how to fight without breaking a nail or messing up my hair, with Jen and Taylor adding things in. I'm probably going to forget everything they said to me later on.

**When **we arrive back to the Bolton residence, Taylor, Chad, and Sharpay went home to spend time with their family while we just chilled in the backyard. The Bolton parents are working and Matt and Amanda are gone somewhere with Edward. We figured at the park or something. We all changed into our bathing suits. Austin always has some extra clothes here for him so it wasn't a problem. I lay on the pool chair looking at the sparkling water of the pool. Austin and Jen lay on the one next to me; her resting on him. Troy is on the courts shooting hoops. Big surprise huh?

"I'm sorry Giggles." Jen murmurs against Austin's chest as he strokes her hair. I look at her confused.

"What are you sorry about?" I asked rising my shades onto the top of my head.

"I'm sorry you got in a fight with Shelly." I look at her even stranger.

"It's not your fault Jen. I'm fine. No harm done. I would have happened sooner or later."

She looks at me disbelievingly. "Promise?" She asks sticking her pinky out.

I hook my pinky with hers. "Promise." I look out to the water again. "I'm going to call Zeke." I state taking out my phone, sitting up. Jen shots up excitedly. I dial his number and wait for him to answer the phone. I put it on speaker so everyone else can listen too. Troy sits next to me, curious on what was happening. I start moving my body to his call tone, which of course is Low. Love that song.

"Hello cookie monster." Zeke answers, using the nickname he gave me a long time ago when he first told us he was a chief and made us cookies. Let's just say, I ate a bit more than anyone else. I smile as I imagine his face, but it immediately flatters when I remember why I called him in the first place.

"Hey big bear. Listen, we need to talk." I tell him seriously. I really don't want to tell him this but I have to. Big bear is a nickname I started calling him when I told him that hugging him was like hugging a grizzly bear. I see Troy mouthing 'Big bear' with his nose scrunched.

"Are you dumping me as a best friend?!" Zeke's tone made me giggle, no matter how serious I was being. Jen and the others laugh along with me.

"No, of course not bestie." I take a really really really deep breath. "I called because I have to tell you something really important."

"What is it Gab? You're starting to worry me. Did something happen? Did someone die?" All the childishness just disappeared. I look at Jen and she nods at me telling me that it's the right thing to do.

"Some_thing_ died." I reply, my voice cracking.

"What!?"

"Your relationship with Shelly." I answer, choking back my gag from saying her name.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I'm still dating Shelly."

"She's cheating on you!" Jen yells. I look at her, eyes wide. She shrugs innocently.

"What!? Jen? Look, I know you two never liked her, but you don't have to lie to get me to break up with her." He's not believing us!

"You have to trust us! We saw it with our own eyes. Austin and Troy too!" I exclaim, almost desperately. Troy puts his arms around my shoulders and rubs my arm. Strangely enough, I feel comforted.

"Yeah man, she was swapping spit with that guy who got his head stuck under a bed at a party this year." Austin adds pulling Jen closer, as if they weren't already attached. He remembers who he is too! Hahaha.

"That's where I saw him!" Jen screams smacking herself on the forehead. Again, hahaha.

"It's true dude." Troy says, still rubbing my arm.

"I'm going to send you pictures." I quickly send a few good shots, and wait for Zeke to reply.

"Shit. What a slut." I hear him mumble. "I'm so sorry, I didn't believe you guys."

"It's okay big bear." I say, a smile starting on my face. "You can dump her now."

"I will. Thanks for looking out for me guys." He says.

"No problem!" Jen and Austin yell in unison. Yeah, I got used to them saying the same thing all the time.

"ZEKE! Get over here and give your grandma a big kiss!" We hear in the distance. Laughs break out everywhere. I think I feel tears coming out of my eyes! I'm going to bug him forever with this!

"Got to go! Bye buddies! And Gabs, forget about what you heard!"

"Yeah right!"

"Bye!" We yell into the phone I hang up and lay down on the chair, completely relieved we got that over with. Troy lies on the chair next to me and Jen and Zeke go back to their original position.

I look out at the pool for about five minutes. It's like calling to me. "I'm going for a swim." I say getting up. "You want to come?"

"Nope, I'm good right here. Have fun." Jen tells me as she kisses Austin's chin. I laugh and jump into the deep end. The water feels great against my skin. I dunk my head in to get my hair fully wet and just float for a second. Basketball may be my favorite sport, but swimming is definitely a close second. I start to swim back and forth from one end of the pool to the other. Might as well get in a couple of laps in this summer. When I get to the end of my fifteenth lap, I look up and Troy is looking at me from above.

"Hi." I say unsure.

"Hey. Mind if I join you?"

I shake my head and start to float again. The next thing I know is that there is that a splash sending me under water. I resurface and see Troy shaking out his hair. I giggle at how funny his hair got. It's went any which way. He swims next to me and starts floating.

"Basketball and swimming? Shoots, I had a hard time with one sports and you did two." He says looking incredulous. The shock is very insulting.

"Actually, it's six sports." I correct proudly. He suddenly goes under water and resurfaces coughing. I laugh and look at him strangely. What was so bad about that?

"Six? What? Didn't you have after school activities or something too?" He asks clearing his throat.

I nod. "I did basketball, swimming, soccer, track, volleyball, and dance. Luckily the coach knew I was in all of them so he made it easier for me to get to practice. Of course there a difference between the dance team and cheerleading team, which Jen was on. I was also in drama club, chemistry club, ecology club, school news paper, yearbook editor and…" Troy stops me by splashing water in my face, making me wipe my face with my hand.

"There's more? How do you maintain that 4.0 of yours?"

"And I was class president." I finish pulling myself up to sit on the edge of the pool, while Troy is treading in the water in front to me. "I study Troy. I don't think that's much of a surprise."

"Wow. I can't believe you actually did all that stuff." I'm not really surprised that you are surprised.

I shrug. "I had great two last years of high school."

Troy visibly winces as I didn't mention the two first years because he was bullying me at the time. "Cool."

I giggle a bit because he sounded so lame. He suddenly becomes uncomfortable. "So, did you have any boyfriends?" He coughs. And coughs. And coughs. "I mean, a social life with all those activities you were in?"

I look at him with my face scrunched. "Of course I had a social life." I answer simply, not wanting to get into my love life; which is currently dead. Troy looks at me expectantly. I just stare back.

"I thought we were supposed to get to know each other." He replies splashing water at me. He pouts with his lower lip sticking out. I giggle at how silly he can be. I never noticed how nice he is. Probably because he's been trying to kill me for a decade. I was about to answer but then his face twisted in disgust. "Ew. Make out somewhere else!"

I look behind me and sure enough, Jen and Austin are making out. Gross. I swear, there is not one day were you can't catch them making out. It's so disgusting. I laugh loudly as Austin carries Jen into the house, winking at us.

"They better not do anything nasty." Troy mutters, his face etched with scrunched. I look at him with a reassuring look.

"Trust me Troy, they aren't going to anything but make out or do something nuts." He looks unsure so I continue. "When we started high school, Jen and I promised each other that we were to save ourselves until marriage. No matter what happens."

He nods, but I can tell he doesn't fully believe me. "Oh."

"I'm serious. Plus, Matt scared us for life when he showed us that marathon on teen pregnancy movies." I shutter at the memory. Two weeks before freshman year, Matt sat Jen and I down and made us watch movies about teen pregnancy. It was traumatizing.

Troy starts cracking up. "I remember that! You and Jen were scared to go near guys for weeks!" he exclaims pulling himself to sit next to me.

"Yeah, it definitely had an effect on us. No doubt." I reply. I'm so glad we changed the subject.

"Anyway, about your social life…" Troy trails off, expecting me to continue. Damn, I thought he forgot about that. Even though it was only a few minutes ago.

"It was good." I state, refusing to give any details. Troy groans.

"Come one. Tell me something! Wasn't the whole point of being that thing between friends and acquaintances to get to know each other?" He's forgetting something! There must have been a look on my face because he added, "And prove to you that I'm not that self-centered, selfish, jerky, egotistic, cocky, mean…" he stares at me for a second. "You can stop me anytime you know."

I laugh. "Yeah, but you were doing such a good job." I tease jumping back into the pool. I shiver at the sudden coldness.

"Now come on Brie…" There he goes again with that name! "Tell me something."

"Okay, okay." I give in. "I had one boyfriend in junior year, and one in senior year."

He looks at me expectantly again. "And…"

He doesn't give up. This is getting irritating. I sigh loudly. "And, they aren't much to talk about." He still stares at me.

"Why did you guys break up? Who broke up with who? Did you love them?" Troy rambles, splashing his feet against the water. I laugh and shake my head.

"Okay! Calm down. You're starting to sound like a chick." I joke splashing water at him. He smiles boyishly. "In junior year, I broke up with him because he cheated on me and no, I didn't love him and I doubt I ever will. In senior year, I broke up with him because he's and ass and still is an ass. I didn't love him either, nor will I ever. "

"Names?" I groan. "I know for sure that both their names are 'Him'."

"Brad Cunningham. Junior year. Newbie." I really don't want to tell him the next one. I sigh as he waits for the next one.

"Well who was senior year?" Troy prompts. He really isn't going to like this.

"Drake Masterson." That was all I had to say before Troy's eyes widened.

"You went out with that loser!?" He exclaimes shocked. When Troy went to East, Drake would follow him around and copy whatever he was doing because he wanted to be as popular as Troy was.

I nod pathetically. "It was a dare and I only dated him for like a week!"

This was true. Zeke dared me during a sleep over. It was the worst week of my life. Just because I asked him out, he thought he was the king of the school. Of course he wasn't, so everybody got annoyed with him. He even ordered me to cut his toenails! I dumped him harshly but I didn't care. He can find someone else that will cut his toenails.

Troy laughs and shakes his head. "Wow."

"Yep." I said simply getting out of the pool. "Want to head in?"

He nods. "Sure."

I suddenly realize something. "Wait, wait, wait. Hold it hotshot." I hold him back by the arm and sit on one of the pool chairs.

Troy looks back at me, confused. "What?"

"I just gave you my E! True Hollywood Story and I get no details from you." He licks his lips and smiles innocently. "There's a problem with that."

"Okay. I'll tell you my E! True Hollywood Story." He mocks sitting down next to me. I glare at him as he laughs at me. "I share a dorm with Chad, I'm the star player of the basketball team," I roll my eyes "I didn't have many relationships, only a couple of awful dates, I have a weird stalker person, I've only been drunk four times, people have been starting to recognize me and it's getting annoying, I..."

I stop him with my mouth. "I get it. Next you're going to tell me how many girls you've had sex with." I interrupt sarcastically.

"I'm a virgin." My mouth drops and I stare at him for ten long seconds before cracking up.

"You are such a liar." He is so not a virgin. I completely doubt it.

"I swear on my life I still am." He sounds so convincing, but I know it's not true.

"Whatever." I playfully push his arm. "You're so lying!"

"Hey, you aren't the only one Matt showed that teen pregnancy marathon to." I start cracking up even harder.

"Are you serious?" I ask through my laughter.

"Dead serious." He replies, laughing slightly himself.

"Damn."

He grabs my hand and helps me up. "Believe it Brie." There he goes again with that name!

We walk back into the house and see Jen and Austin watching Hairspray. OMG...

"Zac Efron is so hot!" I exclaim once I see his face. All eyes turn to me, looking toward me strangely at my sudden outburst.

I flop on the other end of the couch. "Stop looking at me like that. You know it's true."

"Very." Jen agreed looking at the screen once more. Troy takes a seat next to me on the corner and watches the screen with his face scrunched.

"I'm so much hotter than him." He says shaking his head. "His girlfriend is hot."

"Yeah, they are the cutest couple ever." I add. **(A.N. Woo! Go Zanessa! They are adorable!) **

"Aw, baby, do you think I'm cuter than Zac?" Austin asks Jen stroking her cheek.

One of my eyebrows rose as I look at him weirdly. "No."

Jen whacks me in the arm as Troy and I laugh. "Of course I think so cutie pie."

"Okay, gross." I stated. Troy nods in agreement pretending to gag.

"You guys are just jealous that we found the people we love and you two are single." Austin replies sticking his tongue out.

I stick my own tongue out. "Loser."

We all laughed at his feign hurt face. As Jen and Austin carry on watching the movie, Troy and I just talk. It's so weird because I never knew he was so easy to talk to. I'm glad he doesn't feel like that he has to hold back from me. Maybe giving him a chance wasn't such a bad idea after all.

**A.N. Please review! I will try and update it as soon as I can. Promise! I hope you liked this chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N. Thank you so much for all of the reviews! Really, thank you, thank you, and thank you! Wow! Almost 170 reviews in only six chapters! Wow! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Again, thank you! I really, really appreciate them. **

**I'm sorry I haven't been updating so fast. I've been completely busy with every thing at school. Finals are killing me!**

**Hahahaaa, was it a surprise when I made Troy a virgin? **

**Okay, I have a question for you guys!**

**Do you guys want Troy and Gabriella to become friends quickly or progress in slow or medium speed? Let me know! It's all up to you. **

**By the way, if any of you have ideas or anything, let me know them too!**

Chapter Seven

**It **has been a week since me and Troy's "get to know each other" talk. To be honest, it helped us come closer to becoming friends, but not fully. We don't really have to hold back from each other, but I'm still keeping my guard up. I don't want to get hurt. I**'**m still really hesitant about him. There are so many things keeping us from being friends. Every night I think about the pros and cons about having an actual friendship with him. If anybody who knew us found out we were friends, they think we are lying. Truthfully, I'm still in shock about everything that has happened with him. Him wanting to start over and be friends with me? Unbelievable.

The weird thing is that Troy knows more about me than I know about him. I do know a lot of things about him, but he notices the little things about me. He knows what I do before I do it and he knows what I'm about to do without me noticing, like how I bite my lip when I'm nervous or that my nose scrunches when I get confused. I have noticed a couple of tiny habits of his, like he flips his every ten seconds or that his eyes change shades of blue and gray depending on his mood, but he just sees everything. I never took him for the observant type. He's a really good suck up too. Not be mean or anything, but he sure does know how to be a suck up (ass kisser, as some prefer cough Jen cough). It was only a week and a couple of days ago sine I agreed to be that thingamajig between friends and acquaintances but he does everything that he can to show that he wants to start over. I'm truly impressed. He has opened almost every single door that I go through, carries all my bags when I go shopping, watches all the sappy girly movies I pick out, and lets me rant about whatever is bothering me.

Currently, the Bolton family and I are in the backyard relaxing and chilling around the built in fireplace by the pool. Every week the Bolton family takes one day off of work and worries and just hangs out with the people they love; my favorite day of the week. Today's the day. We were strictly told not to use any cell phones, iPods, and other technology stuff. It was very difficult but I managed to survive. Jen couldn't though, she was caught talking and texting Austin multiple times until Jack had to take away her phone for the rest of the day.

I stabbed a marshmallow on my stick thing and put over the fire. Jen is sitting on my left side while Troy on my right. The next thing I know is that I feel something soft hit against my face. I turn to Jen, glaring at her marshmallow filled hand. She smiles innocently at me. I stick out my stick thing and held like a sword. She does the same. We got into a marshmallow stick thing sword fight with everyone looking at us amused. I flew her heated marshmallow in the air by pushing it out with my stick. We all turned to see where it went.

Splat.

"AHHHH! OW! HOT MARSHMALLOW!" Matt screams trying to get the marshmallow off his forehead. Amanda was trying to get him to sit down so she could take it off but he kept jumping around. Everyone started cracking up.

Edward claps his hands excitedly. "Daddy!"

Matt sat down and pulls Eddie in his lap. "Hey buddy, do you mind getting this hot marshmallow of my forehead and make daddy happy?" he asks quickly.

Eddie nods innocently. Jen and I look at each other and awed. Eddie grabs two graham crackers with a piece of chocolate on one and pulls the marshmallow off his dad's forehead using the two halves of the crackers. He takes a bite of his newly made smore, grinning at us proudly. I was the first one to start bursting out in laughter before everyone else.

"Dude, that was smart." Troy praises pounding fist with the little boy. Matt rubs his sons head affectionately while Amanda helps him wipe off the marshmallow smudges left behind. When she was down, Matt immediately wraps his arms around her and pulls her into his lap, rubbing her large tummy slowly.

"You guys are like the perfect couple!" I exclaim pointing at them with my stick. They are!

"For real! Gosh, you guys are still sickly cute after all these years." Jen agrees, heating up another marshmallow.

"You two remind me of your mother and me when we were your age." Jack comments, kissing his wife's cheek. Aw! Is it just me or am I the only one that is single?

"Gabriella, honey, why don't you have a boyfriend to care for you? You definitely deserve someone special." Laura asks curiously, snuggling into her husband's embrace.

"Told you so!" Jen and Amanda yell at me at the same time before I could even respond to Laura's question. Did I mention Jen and Amanda are trying to find me a boyfriend? They've been bothering me forever about it. Please make them stop!

I roll my eyes, sticking my tongue out at them. "You guys stink." I pout. Everyone laughs at me and I couldn't help but join in.

"Why don't you have a boyfriend Brie?" Troy asks after taking a sip of soda. That nickname is starting to grow on me, no matter how much I don't want it to.

I shrug carelessly. "I don't know. I'm just tired of the guys in this town. I know every single one of them and they think of me as a sister."

He nods, seeming content with my answer. "I see."

"That is bullshit." Jen retorts, looking at me with her eyebrows scrunched.

"Language." Jack scolds his daughter. I hold in my giggle as I point at her accusingly.

"Sorry daddy." Jen apologizes. "Anyway, it's true. Gabi, you know more than half of those guys are like in love with you."

I blush and smack her in the arm. "Are not."

"Oh yeah? What about John? You give him a tiny smile or touch him; he'll give us our smoothies for free!"

"John? The smoothie guy at the mall?" Troy asks to make sure, looking at us curiously.

"No, the cheese burger guy." Jen replies sarcastically. I laugh loudly.

"Is that why you wouldn't let me pay for you or even why you didn't take your wallet out?" He asks me, looking incredulous.

"Yeah, he's really sweet but really, really creepy." I say popping a piece of chocolate in my mouth.

"Why?" Troy asks, stealing my marshmallow off my stick.

"Hey!" I exclaim poking him with my stick. "Booty."

He shrugs, looking at us expectantly. "Why is he creepy?"

"I'll tell this one!" Jen volunteers before I even open my mouth. She looks at me asking if she can. I nod slowly. "Okay! John goes to West High. He's a senior and totally obsessed with Gabi. The first time we saw him, he wouldn't take his eyes off her! He just kept staring. It was seriously scaring us while we were eating." Breathe Jen! Breathe! "He started stalking her, getting her these gifts, and everything." She takes a deep breath. Good job. She sure knows how to ramble. "Of course, Gabs didn't take them because she didn't want to lead him on, then Zeke and Austin finally set him straight, telling him to leave her alone. Now, all he can do for Gabi is give her free smoothies!"

"Wow." That was the first thing that came out of Troy's mouth.

"Yeah. Now I get free smoothies." I state obviously because I don't know what else to say.

"Does anyone want to watch a movie?" Matt asks picking Edward up, walking toward the house. Jack, Laura, Amanda are already in the house picking out what to watch. They went in during our smoothie guy conversation.

"Yeah!" We all yell in unison running after him.

Troy opens the door for me. No surprise there. "Thanks." I say walking in. The next thing I hear is the door being shut and knocking. I turn around and see Jen knocking on the backdoor furiously trying to get in.

"What happened?" I ask as Troy opened the door for his sister.

"Right after this butt face went; he shut the door in my face!" Jen exclaims, infuriated. I look at Troy, who is cracking up, and swat his arm.

"Sorry." He mumbles reluctantly when I give him a look. For a twenty year old, he can be so immature.

When we get to the living room, we are informed that we are watching Titanic. One of my favorite movies of all time! Matt, Amanda, and Edward are all cuddled on the large couch, Jack is on his favorite chair, and Laura is lying on his lap. I plop myself on the small couch, waiting for the movie to start. Troy sits next me and Jen lies down on the round chair. I always cry during the movie no matter how many times I've watched it. I guess I'll have to see if I cry again.

**Hmmm… **I fell asleep, but I don't care. I snuggle in to the warmth more, taking a deep breath. I feel strong muscular arms wrap around me, making me jump. Did something happen last night? Was I drunk? My eyes fly open and my mouth drops when I realize where I am. Cuddled into Troy Bolton's side! On his bed? How did we even get up here? OMG! I was drunk! I think.

I start to squirm but I can feel arms wrap around me tighter. Great, I'm stuck. I sigh before resting my head on his chest, defeated. He smells good. Wow, that was weird, but he does. I look at his face and take in his appearances. His perfect brown golden hair over his covered blue eyes, and his slight smile on his face. Seriously, who smiles in their sleep? Apparently he can. I rest my head back on his chest. I guess I can try to go back to sleep.

"Gabriella." My eyes widen as I look back up at him. He still looks like he's sleeping. Is he sleep talking?! He said my name! OMG! OMG! OMG! His arms tighten around my body and he sighs deeply. I can't breathe. I think I'm hyperventilating. I wiggle around to try and slip out of his hold but I can't. Help! I poke his nose softly, hoping that it would at least let me go.

He just scrunches it up and sighs! "Brie." Wake up Troy!

Before I could even do anything else, I hear something crash downstairs causing Troy to groan and loosen his hold on me. I immediately wiggle out and run downstairs to see what happened. When I get downstairs I run into the kitchen and see Edward crying softly and a broken jar in front of him. I instantly pick him up and carry him to the couch. He cries into my hair and I whisper comforting words to him. I wait a couple minutes until his tears have stopped before asking him what happened.

"I got hungry." He explains, "But nobody was awake, I checked. Not mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, Auntie Jen, you, or Uncle Twoy." I smile when he says Troy's name. He always has a hard time pronouncing it. "I ran downstairs and started looking for food, and then I saw the cookie jar." He points at the kitchen. "I tried to grab it but it went crash and made a loud noise. Do you know what the worst part is though?" He is so smart for his age, but it's so cute because he still has a hard time pronouncing the words.

"What?" I ask, looking at him curiously.

"The jar was empty! It didn't have any cookies at all." I start laughing. I couldn't help it. He is so taking after Matt. And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

"Are you hurt?" I ask inspecting his body for any harm incase he accidentally stepped somewhere he wasn't.

He shakes his head. "Nope. I'm hungry."

I giggle. "Okay, let me clean that up and I'll make us some pancakes. How does that sound?"

"Great!"

I let him watch T.V. while I cleaned up the mess. It took me about ten minutes to make sure I didn't miss anything. When I was done, I started to look for the ingredients. As I start taking a bowl out, I feel arms wrap around my waist and I get thrown over a shoulder.

"What the-?!" I exclaim. "Matt! You booty! Let me down!"

"Whatcha' doing Gabs?" He asks, placing me down next to Edward on the couch, who's watching Spongebob.

"Well, I was trying to make breakfast, but someone had to just throw me over their shoulder!" I reply hotly. "Where's everybody?"

"Jen and Mandy are still sleeping, Parents are gone, and Troy is-."

"Here." I looked up at Troy and I just have to say that he is a very good looking guy. It's so weird that I'm thinking that. No offence.

"Hi." I greet before running into the kitchen.

"Make me chocolate chip pancakes!" Matt calls from the living room.

"Okay!" I call back, continuing what I was doing before he interrupted me.

"I'm sorry." Troy whispers to me, standing right behind me. I jump because I didn't hear him come in.

"For what?" I ask even though I think I know why he's sorry.

"You know, for sleeping in the bed with you." He looks so embarrassed. "I carried you upstairs last night, and I guess I kind of passed out of physical drainage."

"It's fine. Nothing to worry about." I assure him.

"Great." He sighs and rubs his palms together.

"You talk in your sleep." I add trying to sound nonchalantly.

"I do not!" He retorts, looking horrified.

"Yes you do!"

"No I don't!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"I don't talk in my sleep!" Troy exclaims in frustration.

"Yes you do!" We hear Matt yell. I start cracking up as Troy's face paled.

"What did I say?" He asks looking worried. I would be too.

"You said-." I pause. I don't think I should tell him that he said my name. "You said something basketball and food."

"Really?"

I nod quickly. "Yup!"

"Okay then." He turns and starts to walk away quickly to the living room. "Funny, I wasn't dreaming about either of those." I hear him mutter. OMG! He was dreaming about me! It was probably a nightmare.

"Gabi! Gabi! Gabi! Gabi! Gabi!" I look at Jen, who you can immediately tell that she just woke up, running toward me, shaking my shoulders.

"What? What? What?" I reply, mocking her.

"I just found something out!"

"What?"

"It's about you."

"What is it?!"

"Joey Gates has a thing for you!"

"WHAT!"

**A.N. OMG! Who's Joey Gates?! Wait until the next chapter to find out! ****Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**IMPORTANT A.N.****: I'm alive! If any of you are wondering. Lol. I'm so sorry for the long wait! This summer has been so much fun! Sorry I didn't update sooner. I had so many things planned and I was so tired! I'm so sorry. **

**I don't own anything except the plot and the OCs! **

**Thank you so much for all the reviews! WOW! 200+ reviews in just seven chapters! Thank you so so so so so so so so so much! I really appreciate them. You have no idea how much they mean to me. Anyway, on with the story!**

Chapter Eight

**Any **girl would describe Joey as the perfect guy. He's charming, handsome, gets along with parents, and can make a girl melt just by smiling at her. The kind of guy that will fit into any girl's life style. But not to me, which surprise most. He may seem like the nice guy, but I know for a fact he isn't.

He makes bets with at least half of the soccer team. Now, I know that doesn't seem bad, but what they're betting on is absolutely low and disgusting. Every month, each person that knows about it finds a girl he wants to sleep with and bets on her. Any amount of money. It's their way of making easy money. Sick, I know. Most of the school doesn't know that because each person that's involved takes this stupid oath one of them made up. I wasn't meant to find out. It was an accident. I went into the boys locker room to find Zeke one day and heard them talking about it. I hid in a locker so I wouldn't get caught. It was one of the rare times I was happy to be so small. I haven't told anybody but Jen.

Another thing I know about Joey is that he is full on determined to get what he wants or to get things done. He seriously knows how to woo a girl into his arms. I know he will do anything; that scares me the most.

Jen nods at my previous sentence, well more like word. I scream loudly. Trust me; it was no school girl, preppy scream. It's the scream you hear when you're watching a horror movie.

Troy runs in first, skidding to a stop in front of me. "What's going on? What happened? Are you okay?"

Then Matt comes in with Edward in his arms. "What are you screaming about?"

I ignore them. "For real?" I ask Jen. "How did you find out?"

"For real. For real." She replies. "Kevin told Nick, who told Joe, who told Demi, who told Selena, who told Miley, who told Ashley, who told Jared, who told Corbin, who told Monique, who told Zac, who told Vanessa, who told me. And some more people before Kevin but I don't know who."

Most people wouldn't have understood that but I've got so used to it, I sometimes to it myself. Troy tilts his head, trying to comprehend what his sister said while Matt was trying to mouth what she said.

"Are you sure it's me?" I ask. Hopefully someone in that long line of people confused Gabriella with Isabella or some other name that sounds like my name.

"Swear. I got his number from his ex Joanna and texted him, asking if it was true."

I groan loudly. "Why? Why? Why me? I don't want to deal with him. He irks me until no end!"

"That's why we keep you away from him. I already told everyone to meet up with us later at the park for a picnic because I doubt he is going to be there." Jen informs me happily. Thank god she's my best friend! I launch myself at her and hug her tightly. Zeke came back yesterday, but we couldn't call him because someone (cough, Mr. Bolton, cough,) wouldn't let us use our phones. Perfect time for him to meet Sharpay!

"I love you! Oh my gosh! You're a fudging genius!" I exclaim. I learned how to watch my language when Edward was around. She laughs and hugs me back.

"I know. I'm brilliant." She jokes as we break our hug. Troy suddenly steps in front of me and grabs my shoulders. His hands are surprisingly soft. Maybe he uses moisturizer.

"What's going on?" He asks looking into my eyes. I stare back, feeling a lump in my throat at how deep his eyes look.

"Yeah, what's got you and Bouncy over there shouting things that don't make sense?" Matt adds, starting to make the pancake mix that was totally forgotten. Edward already ran off back to the T.V.

I look over at Jen and she motions me not to tell them. "Well…." I trail off, looking for a distraction. "First off, her nickname is Bubbles because she's always bubbly but I do have to agree that she is very bouncy. I mean, the nickname fits, but it isn't as cute as Bubbles and-." I ramble on until Troy covers my mouth with his hand. I quickly spit into it, making him pull a disgusted look and taking his hand away, wiping it on his shirt.

"That was gross." He states, wiping his hand repeatedly against his shirt.

"Whatever, you know you wanted her spit in your mouth, not your hand." Jen says to her brother, sticking her tongue out afterwards. My mouth drops four million feet into the ground. I can practically feel my face changing a different color. Did she really just say that?! She's almost as blunt as Sharpay. Matt laughs as he makes pours some pancake batter onto the pan.

"Jen, could you not be perverted at this moment." Troy questions. Jens just shrugs. "Now, instead of rambling about Jen's nicknames, can you tell us the real reason you guys are freaking out."

Jen and I glance at each other. "We-we-we-we thought we saw a mouse." Jen mumbles uncertainly, playing with her pajama top. It sounded like a question when it was supposed to be a statement. I nod anyway, agreeing with her very unconvincing reason.

Matt sighs. "Jen, do you really think we are that stupid?" He asks, trying to flip a pancake.

"Do you really want me to answer that truthfully?" Jen questions back with her eyebrows rising.

"I change my mind about that question, but tell us what's got you two saying whatever you were saying." Matt replies. It's a good thing Jen didn't answer his question because she could go on for hours on reasons why her two brother can be stupid. I look at Jen and she shrugs, giving me the permission to tell them if I want to. I shook my head refusing to tell them anything. Suddenly Matt throws Troy a spoon while Jen and I look at them weirdly. What the hell are they doing?

"_I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world! Life is plastic! It's fantastic_!" They bellow while poking us in random places repeatedly. Jen and I immediately cover our ears. I quickly throw my hands up in defeat after just two seconds of their incoherent moose calls.

"Fine," I complain, exaggerating the e. "I'll tell you if you just shut up!" Those two can really irritate you into confessing something. They both smile victoriously as I stick my pinky at them, instead of my middle one incase Edward was secretly watching.

"Put your pinky down! That's mean!" Troy says. I keep my pink up for another second.

"Just tell us already." Matt whines, finishing up the pancakes and goes to sit at the table. Troy agrees with him leaning on the counter next to me. I sigh and tell them everything, I mean every, everything; from the locker room to this morning, fidgeting with the basketball shorts I was wearing last night since Troy didn't change me.

"Are you serious?" Troy asks when I was done. Jen and I look at each other then nod vigorously.

"Troy, if we weren't serious, do you think we would be freaking out like this?" Jen responds to her brother, already sitting down to eat.

"You're staying away from him." Matt strictly demands putting four pancakes on his plate. It's a good thing he made extra. He eats too much.

"No Matt, we are going to find him and make Giggles give him a blow job." Jen responds sarcastically. I laugh at the horror on Matt's face.

"We already changed our plans to go have a picnic because we know for sure Joey won't be there. His normal hang out place is the mall. He hates nature." I inform as me and Troy sits down as well. Edward comes running in and sits next to this father, stealing a big bite off of his plate.

"Yeah, he's so weird." Jen comments, I personally can't disagree.

"Who's going to be making the food for the picnic?" Matt asks. If you didn't know already, Matt always has food on his mind. Even if it's way in the back.

"Me and Jen will." I suggest since it was her idea to go to the park today.

"NO!" Matt and Troy yell in unison. I jerk back at the panic at their voice.

"Why not?" Jen questions her brothers with a glare.

"Well…" Troy starts but was suddenly cut off.

"I smell pancakes!" Amanda's voice rings loudly as she runs downstairs. She quickly sits next to her husband and puts three pancakes on her plate. It seems the two men are happy the previous conversation was forgotten. I would be too if I were them.

"Good morning to you too." Troy says to his sister in law. Jen and I giggle as Matt kisses his wife's cheek.

"Where's the ketchup?" Amanda asks, looking at her already syrup downed pancakes. We all look at her grossed out. Ketchup and syrup on pancakes?! Together?! EW! "What?"

Matt quickly goes to the fridge and takes out the ketchup. "Here." He hands her the ketchup and she takes it hungrily. We all gag as she squirts a huge glob on her pancakes. Gross! She takes a bite out of it and moans in delight. Jen, Troy, and I push our plates forward, completely loosing our appetites.

"Is that good momma?" Edward asks Amanda as he watches her stuff the ketchup and syrup covered pancakes into her mouth, nodding her head. Amanda swallowed what was in her mouth while we watched disgusted.

Matt doesn't even look grossed out. "I'm used to her weird cravings." He tells us as he sees us looking at him. Figures.

"Can I taste some?" Eddie asks his mom. Is he serious? Troy and I look at each other at the same time with our eyes wide. He's not really going to eat it is he? I hear Jen gag a little.

"Sure honey," Amanda pops a piece into her son's mouth. "Do you want more?"

Edwards face twists in disgust. "No thank you. You can have it. All of it."

"Troy!" I exclaim. His head snaps up and looks at me alarmed.

"What?"

"I dare you to taste some of that." I reply with a smirk on my face.

"Are you serious?" He asks incredulously. I nod enthusiastically.

"NO!" He looks so grossed out. Hahahahaa. Everyone else laughs.

"Come on Troy, Edward was brave enough to do it and he's not even half your age." I taunt.

"Yeah Troy, is your toddler nephew braver than you?" Jen joins in my taunting, tsking at him. I laugh as he gulps.

"Come on brother! Be a man!" Matt exclaims flexing his muscles. I laugh even more.

"You taste some then!" Troy says to Matt, glaring at him. Matt gulps and shakes his head. "What? Your son braver than you? Be a man!"

I laugh even harder. This is going to be good.

"It's really good guys." Amanda tells the, stuffing more in her mouth. Yucky!

We all watch anxiously as Troy takes a piece of a ketchup/syrup drenched pancake on his fork and holds it in front of him. He looks so disgusted. Hahahahahaaa. He grimaces and puts it in his mouth and chews it quickly, immediately swallowing it. We all hoot and laugh as he runs to the fridge and practically drowns his mouth in orange juice.

"Knuckle touch." Jen says laughing. We quickly touch knuckles and laugh some more.

"I can't believe you made me do that." Troy states, wiping his mouth as he sits back down still holding the orange juice in his hand. "Your turn Matt."

Matt groans and picks up a piece with his fork. He closes his eyes for a moment before stuffing it in his mouth, and immediately swallows it. I tilt my head to the side, fascinated. Did he even chew that?

"I hate you for making me do that." He moans, stealing some orange juice from Troy.

I giggle. I have officially lost my appetites for pancakes though. "Hot pocket?" I ask everyone.

"Me!" Jen and Troy's instantly hands shoot up, obviously feeling the same way I do.

"My stomach can't take anymore food." Matt whines putting his head on the table. That's a big surprise. No joke.

"I need to take the taste out of my mouth!" Troy says stretching his arms. I laugh and quickly microwave our three hot pockets. We tease Troy some more when I make his last.

"You guys are so mean to me!" He whines as I hand him his. I snicker.

Before I could reply, I hear my cell phone ring from upstairs. "Excuse me." I tell everyone before running up to Troy's room. I find my phone on the desk and see it's an unknown number.

"Hello?" I answer running back downstairs and into the dining room.

"Hey baby."

Oh shit! I nearly drop my phone. I skid to a stop in front of the table. I feel a scowl forming on my face. Everyone looks at me weirdly.

"Who is it?" Jen asks finishing her hot pocket. The others wait curiously, except Edward who has no idea what's going on.

"Joey." I mouth. Jen's eyes widen as she instantly gets up and attaches her ear on the other side of my phone.

"How'd you get my number?" I ask rather rudely. He just laughs. I guess he expected that.

"I have my ways babe." He replies. I feel myself shudder every time he calls me babe or baby. It's not the good kind of shudder either. It's the one where you know something bad is going to happen. His voice sounds so husky. He's probably making it sound that way because he thinks it sounds 'sexy'. Whatever, he sounds like he's choking.

"I'm not your babe." I snap violently, hopping he would quit playing this stupid act.

"Yet. My dearest, I can give you anything you want." He responds charmingly. Ugh! Loser face!

I scoff. "Sorry, but STD's are something I_ don't_ want." I retort viciously. Jen laughs loudly, not caring if Joey heard her, as Troy laughs his arms. Matt muffles his laugh in his wife's shoulder. When I went upstairs, Amanda had taken Edward back to the living room and sat on Matt's lap when she came back.

"Baby, you know I'm not that. I really like you. Give me a chance. I don't want to fuck you. Trust me." He's a really good actor. It surprises me how sincere he sounds. I know better than to believe him.

"Yeah, I know you don't want to fuck me," I say sighing. I can practically see him smirk from wherever he is. "You don't need to because you already have fifty million other fuck buddies. Tell you what, FUCK YOURSELF!"

I quickly end the call and slip the phone into my back pocket after that last sentence, scared of what he would reply back. I put my hand against my heart in relief, listening to my rapid heart beat.

"That was wicked awesome!" Jen shouts jumping up and down. I laugh and we start jumping up and down in together. Matt and Amanda laugh at our silliness before leaving the room. They probably are going to watch T.V. with Edward.

"Okay, enough with jumping, let's go outside." Troy grins and opens the door for us leading to the backyard. I quickly lay on one of the pool chairs and sigh. The sky is perfect today. It goes good with my mood.

"That felt good." I breathe out, stretching my arms and legs.

"What felt so good?" Troy asks kneeling down next to my face.

"That she finally got to blow up on Joey." Jen tells him lazily, her arm draping from the chair. She can seriously read my mind. That is so creepy. But then really cool. I wonder if I could read her mind. Maybe I can because we're best friends and practically twins. I stare at Jens forehead, trying to get something.

"Are you okay?" My head quickly snaps into Troy's direction as he moves my bangs out of my face.

"What?" I respond confused. Why would he be asking if I was okay?

"Are you okay? You've been staring at Jen's head for the last three minutes." I was?

"Yeah, it was kind of creepy." Jen agrees closing her eyes.

"Oh sorry, I was trying to read your mind." Troy looks at me with a 'What-the-fuck?' face. At least I was honest! I'm not surprised Jen doesn't look a bit surprised. She probably knew I was going to say that. Because she's a mind reader! Well, maybe.

"You were trying to read her mind?" Troy questions testing my sanity. No duh, didn't you hear what I said.

"Yeah. I wanted to see if I could read her mind." Is there some kind of rule that if you try and read your best friend's mind makes you insane?

"She was only doing that because she thinks I can read her mind." Jen mumbles half asleep.

"See! How do you do that?!" I exclaim sitting up. Troy lies down on the other side of me so that I was facing Jen.

"Giggles, I've known you for almost eleven years, I can read you like a book." True… "It's the same for you to me but you just don't realize it." Oh… I hate when she's right!

I stick my tongue out at her. "I was having more fun thinking you could read my mind."

"Too bad." She laughs. "You should call Zeke. I think he should make the food for later on." Jen adds, throwing a small glare at Troy.

"Why Zeke?" Troy asks with his eyes still closed. I turn to face him and pinch his nose. I don't why, I just felt like it. Maybe it's because he hasn't tried Zeke's cooking yet. He scrunches it up and grins up at me without opening his eyes.

"Because he's amazing!" I gush. "You seriously have to try his white chocolate and chocolate cookies! They just melt into your mouth!" I moan in delight, thinking of those heavenly cookies. They are just so yummy!

"I love his brownies! They are so moist! Oh, I can totally live off them for the rest of my life!" Jen licks her lips as if she was eating one of Zeke's awesome brownies.

"I love, love, love his strawberry cheesecake!" I exclaim; a slice of it is just to die for.

"I know! It is just so good! Oh and his homemade ice cream is like the best!"

"Okay! I get it! Stop with the food talk, its making me hungry." Troy interrupts before I got to gush about Zeke's ice cream.

"Sorry." I mumble seeing as Jen was having a food fantasy with one of Zeke's amazing creations. "I'll call him now."

I grab my phone from my pocket and dial Zeke's number. He picks up on the second ring.

"Hey buddy."

"Hey! You're going to the picnic at two yeah?" I ask just to make sure.

"Yup. And you want me to make the food."

"Why can everyone read my mind?!" I wail loudly. Troy, Jen, and Zeke just laugh at me. They are all mean people! Well, sometimes. Okay, they aren't, but still!

"It was obvious. So what do you want me to make?"

"Whatever you say. Okay, we want those milk and white chocolate cookies, walnut brownies, a huge cheesecake, sandwiches, burgers, mac and cheese, and hotdogs!"

"We'll bring the blanket, drinks and chips!" Jen yells so that Zeke can hear.

"Okay, so you guy's favorites, sandwiches, burgers, mac and cheese, and hotdogs. Got it."

"Thank you! I'll call you later big bear a.k.a. chef master dude." I have no idea where that came from. Hahahahaa.

"Ttly, cookie monster."

"And proud of it!"

We laugh before hanging up. I walk over to the patio and put my cell on the table incase we decide to take a swim; personally, I cannot live without my phone. I jog back over and sit next to Troy since Jen was lying down.

"I'm going to feel so sorry for Zeke and Matt when Amanda tries his food." Troy tells us running a hand through his hair.

"Why?" Jen asks as we look at him curiously.

"Because if his food has you two under a spell, imagine what it could do to Manda." That doesn't make any sense! Troy must have seen confusion cross our faces. "She'll be craving it with weird sauces. Zeke will have to make them, while Matt deals with her complaining about how she wants them."

Sympathetic thoughts cross my mind for the two men, but when I realize how funny it would be I start laughing.

"That would be hilarious." Jen grins. I nod in agreement.

I suddenly see a big brown hair poof dive into the pool.

"Chad!" Jen and I yell in unison, laughing at his entrance. Only him…hahahahahahaa.

"Dude! I love your pool!" He exclaims swimming around. I notice he's wearing swimming trunks; at least he's not wearing his underwear.

"Dude, what are you doing here?" Troy asks his best friend as we all gather by the edge of the pool.

"Dude, I got bored and since Taylor was hanging out with her family and I didn't want to go to the spa with Shar, I decided to come bother you guys." He replied trying to spit water out of his mouth trying to make it look like a fountain.

"Thanks dude, you make us feel so special."

"Dude, I know!"

"Dude, I completely doubt you would want to hang with Shar first."

"True that! Dude…"

"GUYS!" Jen yells, finally breaking their 'dude' fest. Luckily she did because I was going to punch Troy into the pool the next time he said dude.

"What?" They ask looking at us like we're crazy. They're the ones who are crazy; Crazy dude word saying people.

"You guys are saying dude way too much! Stop!" I inform them of their insanely annoying use of the word.

"Sorry." Troy apologizes for the both of them. Jen rolls her eyes and sits back down. I follow her and drumming my fingers while Troy sits at the edge of the crossed legged.

"It's so boring out here!" Chad whines coming back up for air. "Troy, go get your stereo man."

"Hell no. Remember last time we brought Austin's stereo out here?" Troy protests, shuddering at the thought of having to buy a new stereo. Jen and I start laughing because it was just three days ago when Chad did a cannon ball off a table and soaked the stereo. It's a good thing I put my cell on the patio today.

"That was not my fault!" Chad corrects as he shakes his hair out. "Gabi wouldn't sing for us and you guys put the stereo in my splash zone!"

I groan as I remember everyone trying to get me to sing because Jen blurted it out. "Thanks Jen." I tell her; sarcasm dripping in every word.

"You love me." She replies cheekily. I roll my eyes.

"Sadly." I mutter, smiling innocently.

She whacks my arm. "You know it."

I hit her back and stick my tongue out at her.

"Woo! Two hot chicks hitting each other!"

We both turn to Chad and laugh as Troy tries to splash him with water.

"That's my sister man!"

"Well she's not my _blood related_ sister." Chad reasons; Jen is like his sister, just not blood related. Smart Chad has come to grace us with his presence. Yay, I think. Jen and I laugh at the sight of the two idiotic boys we sadly know.

"That's still wrong." Troy fires back. Chad shrugs and dips his back into the water.

While I tell Jen about my plan to get Zeke and Sharpay together, we hear a splash. My head snaps to the direction of the pool and see Chad hooting and punching the air with his fist. Okay, Chad really is weird but it didn't look like he was the one who jumped in. A second later, a dark brown, almost black, mop head pops up next to Chad.

"Troy?" My voice has a confusion dressed all over it. Did he even go inside to change?

"Troy! What the hell are you wearing?!" Jen yells, standing up and marching to the edge of the pool in front of her brother. "You better not be skinny dipping! Other people swim in this pool! Remember the last time!"

I almost choke remembering the last time the guys went skinny dipping in the pool. It was very disturbing and Jen cleaned the pool over and over for about two weeks to make sure it had no more yucky, icky boy infected germs, her words. They also tried to mix the water with soda until they realized they couldn't drink it because of the chlorine and pee that might have been in there. Jen can be really frightening when she's mad. She yelled at them for over an hour while I was watching on the sidelines. Scary sight…

I glance around and see Troy's clothes where he was sitting two minutes ago. I sigh in relief when I see no boxers in the pile. I'm not one of those girls who want to see Troy's nude body all the time. Well, maybe only his chest, only because of his killer abs.

"Don't worry! I'm wearing my boxers!" Troy reassures her as he and Chad start trying to dunk each other's heads into the water. They are so immature for their age but at least they're funny.

"Troy Michael Alexander Bolton! For all I know, you could have jacked off in those boxers!" Jen can be fast to assume the worst when it comes to her brothers. I would too if I was her. Matt and Troy can be a little… insane. Chad and I immediately start cracking up at the look of embarrassment and horror that is displayed on Troy's face.

"Don't look at me like that! Go change!" Jen demanded pointing her finger in the direction of the house. Chad and I just keep laughing. Troy pulls his dripping wet body out of the pool. He has a hot body; I'm seriously not denying it. He stomps toward the house muttering something along the lines of 'insane, crazy, bossy, out of her mind, sister'. Everyone knows not to argue with Jen when she gets like that, well except me, but that's different.

"Why don't you guys come in?" Chad asks us, trying to splash us with water.

"We're wearing our pajamas and not really in the mood for a morning dip." Jen explains, yawning a little to prove her point.

"Happy now!?" We hear Troy exclaim as he comes back in black swimming trunks.

"Very." Jen says, grinning proudly. Troy throws her a sarcastic smile before jumping back into the pool.

"Want to watch T.V.?" Jen questions after five minutes of watching the boys try to make a bigger belly flop than the other, both sounding very painful.

"Yes please. Watching them is making my front half hurt." I agree as we both stand up and head to the door. We race up to Jen's room and flip through the channels. When Disney pops up, I suddenly get curious about the adult actors in the toddler shows.

"I wonder how much they get paid…" I tell Jen trying to calculate a number in my head.

"I know right. Want to look it up online?" Jen responds getting her laptop.

"We can try." I say with a smile spreading on my face.

We have absolutely nothing better to do anyway for the next few hours until the picnic. I wonder what would happen…

**A.N: Please review! I was going to put the picnic in this chapter but it would take too long and I wanted to update as soon as possible.**

**Buy Vanessa's new album! I did! Lol. **

**-Victoria xoxoxox**


	9. Chapter 9

**A.N. VERY VERY SUPER SUPER SUPER IMPORTANT! Okay, I'm so superdeduper sorry sorry sorry sorry times a billion about not updating faster then before! It's been months! School has taken up all my time and all my teachers are hard asses. I've been completely swapped! They've been giving me ass fills of homework every night and I never had any time to update this story and a new story I've started working on (which will be out soon so keep your eyes open). I've been also having new boy problems so yeahh. I finally found some time to finish this chapter.**

**Okay here's the VERY IMPORTANT part. Well, I've noticed in some of the reviews are questions. I now PROMISE with all my heart to reply to each and every one of the reviews to EVERY one of my stories even if it isn't a question within a week since I got it. If it isn't a question; like its suggestions for the story or compliments (my favorite!); I still will reply back.**

**Oh and I watched HSM3! It was amazing! Go watch it! **

**Okay, on with this chapter!**

Chapter Nine

**"I'm** so sorry Chad," I apologize for the one billionth time. He rubs his now red cheek. "I'm so, so, so, so sorry!"

"Ouch," he moans as he puts the icepack Troy gives him onto his eye. "Gabi! Since when did you punch so hard!?"

If you didn't realize it yet, yes, I did punch Chad. But it was a total accident!

"I'm so sorry!" I apologize again. Jen giggles as her and Troy sit back and watch Chad wince every time the coldness of the icepack touches his puffy skin. "How was I supposed to know you were going to come and scare the crap out of me?!"

"Do people attack you often? I mean, they have to! I mean those reflexes!" He sounds so amazed. Whatever, he's just jealous I can punch harder. So HA!

"No, people don't attack me often. I just don't like it when people scare me when I'm watching a scary movie, thank you very much," I reply matter-of-factly crossing my arms. Okay, here's how it went: Me and Jen watch very scary movie to kill time, Chad scares me during one of the scary parts, and I punch him in the face. End of story.

"Yeah, but it hurts! Owwie," Chad whines as he throws the icepack into the sink.

"I can't wait to spread this around campus man," Troy teases, pretending to show Chad's face when I punched him. Chad throws his empty plastic cup that was filled with water he was drinking earlier at Troy but misses. "Shit, you should have seen your face man!"

Jen and I laugh as we watch Chad pick up a spatula and chases Troy out of the house.

"They are such losers," Jen comments as we hop off the counters we were sitting on. We walk into the living room and turn the T.V. back on, but not even two minutes of watching, we hear a scream coming from the laundry room. A male scream; a really scared girlish man scream. Instantly hopping off the couch and straight to the laundry room was down in 5 seconds flat. When we get there though, what we see is more of a surprise.

Matt is holding up a thong with both of his pointer fingers and thumbs. Jen's thong. OMG! I know because it's bejeweled with her name on it. Yikes. My jaw falls along with Jen's and I immediately start cracking up as color creeps into her face.

"What the hell is this?!" Matt exclaims, wildly swinging around the small amount of fabric. "It's practically dental floss!"

Jen snatches the thong out of Matt's hand when she was able to reach it and punches his shoulder. "Why are you looking through my laundry?!" Hahahaaa! She's trying to turn it on him! This is one of the reasons why I love staying at the Bolton's. The fights are so entertaining.

"Well I was going to do your laundry for you, like the best big brother I am, but then I saw that three centimeter worth of fabric," Matt retorts folding his arms across his chest. My head turns from side to side watching who is talking, trying to keep my laugh. "Seriously, I can stick that between my teeth and floss out my breakfast!"

That almost killed me. I probably looked insane laughing hysterically on the side but that's okay. This is something I doubt I will ever forget.

"It's a THONG!" Jen yells. "You know, the thing girls, sometimes guys, wear where," she held up the back part that goes in your butt, "this part goes in the booty!"

"You should know Mattie Boy. I bet you've seen Manda wearing one. I mean, it's obvious you guys do each other," I butt in. "Eddie is living proof. Unless you guys don't, then honey, your wife might be cheating on you or did you guys have a sperm-."

Matt covers my mouth before I can even finish my short rant. It was going to be a good one too! I push his hand away and smirk up at him. A blush starts to form from his neck up and I just continue laughing. No point in trying to hold it in anymore. Jen starts laughing along with me as Matt starts rubbing his neck, just like Troy does. These Bolton boys are the same.

"Whatever. Jen don't you be showing boys your floss!" Matt demands throwing the thong into the washer. "Seriously! Doesn't it feel like your ass is eating your underwear?" Okay, that one killed me. I can hardly breathe but I can't stop laughing. He seems so curious about how wearing a thong feels. Oh yeah, coming to the Bolton house and watching the sibling fights has to be on everyone's Things To Do Before I Die lists. I can definitely cross that one off, about three billion or more times.

Jen groans. "Ugh! Would you like to try one on?!"

"You guys are hilarious," I tell them shaking my head. "If you do want to try one on Matt, I can go looking through your sister's drawers, or would you be more comfortable wearing Amanda's?" Jen bursts out laughing as Matt grabs some clothes from the hamper and throws them at me, but misses. Hahahahaaa, loser. I stick my tongue out at him as Jen grabs my arm.

"Come on; let's go before he finds bedazzled thongs from Mom's laundry," Jen jokes pulling me out of the laundry room.

"You'reparentshavingsex!" I say quickly and loud enough for Matt to hear. It took him a moment to process what I said in his brain. I start laughing as I hear Matt groan.

"EW!" Matt's voice rang as I closed the door. "IMAGES!"

Jen and I flop ourselves on the couch when we reach the living room. Glancing at the clock, I see it's almost twelve-thirty. Time to get ready!

"We should get ready," Jen and I say at the same time.

"See!" I exclaim, my voice accusing. "You can read my mind!"

"Giggles, we went through this already," She replies. She talked slowly like I was four. I just smile innocently.

"Like I said, I liked it better when I thought you could read my mind."

"You're such a dork."

"You love me anyway!"

"Please let this end with a kiss this time!"

Chad. That boy needs to get a life.

I roll my eyes and look at Troy and Chad who are standing by the doorway to the kitchen. I seriously think Chad's mom may have dropped him at least twice when he was a baby.

"Chad, if you didn't have that gigantic afro to protect your head from the fall, I would've pushed you off my tree house by now," Jen informs him. Troy and I start laughing as Chad feels his fro'.

"Thank goodness for my fro' then." Jen just playfully slaps him and shakes his afro.

"Well, we need to get ready and so do you boys," I say as I ruffle up Troy's hair. Me and Jen run up the stairs before we get sidetracked again.

I take a quick shower and then blow dry my hair. I'll just leave my hair naturally wavy today. I decide to put on some jean shorts and a Hollister t-shirt with a pair of converses. Simple and comfortable. The only jewelry I put on is my locket that my dad got me last Christmas with him and mom in it. I bounce downstairs and see Troy and Chad already ready, sitting on the couch waiting for everyone.

"How'd you guys get ready so fast?" I ask as I squish myself between them.

"We took showers after we swam so all we had to was change," Troy explain putting his arm around my back on the couch. "We already put everything in the car and Jen isn't ready yet."

"I can see that. How about Matt and Amanda?"

"They're dressing Eddie as we speak." Chad answered this time without looking up. He's preoccupied with his phone. I bet anybody fifty bucks he's texting Taylor, his honey bunches. He was the one who gave her the nickname, and I personally don't want to know why. I'm guessing it has to do with something sexual. Or not. Maybe. Those two are so humpy! Like rabbits! Suddenly Chad's ring tone goes off, breaking me from my thoughts, thankfully. Thinking about Chad and Taylor's couple life is awkward and weird. I have no idea why I was thinking about it in the first place.

"You guys are boring me," I admit. They look slightly offended for a second before I feel two pairs of hands tickling me. I shriek and squirm around yelling at them to stop.

"Guys! Stop! Stop!" They won't stop with the tickling. I feel myself losing oxygen quickly. I scream for help. "Can't breathe! Hahahahaa! Stop!"

They next thing I know is that I don't feel their hands on me and I open my eyes. I can't believe what I'm seeing. Edward is hitting Troy and Chad with one of those foam bats. I think it's the one Matt bought him at the mall a couple weeks ago.

"Don't hurt! No, no, no," Edward repeats as he continues punishing the two immature losers I call friends. I can't help but giggle uncontrollably. It's just one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Two juniors in college getting beat up by a toddler. What a sight to see. Jen comes down stairs after finishing getting ready and immediately starts cheering. That makes me laugh even more.

"Woo! Hit them harder! Yeah! You guys are so weak sauce," she says throwing her hands in the air. Now, Troy and Chad are the one yelling for help.

"Stop Eddie!"

"You're flattening out my fro' dude!"

"OW! That one hurt!"

"I'm telling my honey bunches!"

"Of oaks!" I couldn't help but yell it. It was too hard to pass up. Jen laughs and sits one of the loveseats to enjoy the show. I join her but sit down on the armrest since it wouldn't fit both of us.

"SHUT UP GABI! Ow! I mean, I'm sorry Gabi!"

"You're lucky you're my nephew! Ow!"

"My eye! You hit my eye! I'm going to be blind!"

"HELP!"

"What is going on down here?" Matt asks as he walks down the stairs and sees his son mobbing his brother and his brother's best friend. Anybody would think that he would start admonishing Eddie but his eyes light up and he starts cheering like Jen did moments before. Weirdo.

"Edward!" Amanda's voice bounces against the walls. We all jump and look at her a little worried. I hear Chad and Troy breathe a sigh of relief now that Amanda was there to save them. "What are you doing baby boy?"

Edward flashes his mom the charming Bolton smile and runs to hug her legs. "They hurt Gabi Gabi."

"Oh sweetie, next time, just hit them once." I choke back a giggle as Troy and Chad's jaw drop. Amanda rubs her son's head affectionately before Matt scoops Edward up in his arms and puts him on his shoulders. Matt places a kiss on Amanda's lips that was too passionate for a toddler to see.

"Whoa buddy! Getting physical up in here. Save that for later children," I tease them, wiggling my finger accusingly. Matt stuck his tongue out me and smiled back.

"So when are we going to eat?" Amanda asks rubbing her swollen belly. "I'm starving here." We laugh at her before walking out the door. Matt, Amanda, and Edward ride in one car and we ride in Troy's car. Jen and me in the back while the boys are in the front. While getting in the car, I feel my cell vibrate.

**From: Shar**

**Where are you Gabs? Me and Taylor are here already.**

That was fast. Luckily it only takes us five to ten minutes to get the park. I bet Chad is missing his honey bunches. I can't get over that nickname. It seriously makes me hungry for the cereal.

"Shar and Tay are already there," I inform everyone in the car. I can see Chad smile at the mention of Taylor. Cuteness.

"You should tell them to find Zeke since he probably is already there," Jen says tweaking with her own phone. "Austin is on his way. He just left his house." I'm not surprised Jen knows where her lover is. I shove Jen a little, smiling teasingly at her when her face lit up when she said Austin's name. She smiles but you can so see that blush on her face. How come everyone has a beau except me? I quickly text Sharpay back before she freaks out.

**To: Shar**

**We'll be there in ten minutes. Find Zeke. He should be there. **

I wonder what Sharpay's reaction will be when she sees Zeke. Hopefully she'll like him. They would honestly look so cute together. Their personalities balance each other out. She's, well, she's Sharpay. You all know what she's like. Zeke is really chill and everything.

"Are you ready to match make?" Jen asks me, smiling excitedly. Troy and Chad are too busy discussing stuff about basketball season.

I smile back, just as excited. "You know it."

I feel my cell vibrating. Sharpay is calling me. I press the green button and before I even get to answer, she starts talking.

"Where's Zeke? How does he look like? Gabs, we look so lost over here!"

I giggle. "Hello to you sunshine. Chill, who exactly do you see right now?"

"Well, there's this old people couple, people, more people, little kids, and this damn gorgeous guy carrying a bunch of baskets."

Damn gorgeous guy carrying a bunch of baskets? She sounds dreamy. I hope she didn't find another guy besides Zeke there! I wonder who that is. I was about to ask how he looks like but we already pulled into the park parking lot.

"We're here anyway so we'll just find him." I tell her before hanging up. As usual, Troy opens the door for me. I smile at him as he helps him out of his car and he grins back. We sort of start staring at each other. His eyes are the bluest I've seen.

"Eddie boy! Stay away from them! They might eat you!"

I look away from Troy's amazing eyes and see Matt chasing Eddie around while Eddie is trying to catch one of the birds. I laugh at them and take a deep breath. I love this park. It has almost everything from basketball courts to a playground. I turn back to Troy and see him staring at me. His eyes are now a darker shade of blue. It's like the first time I've actually paid attention to his eyes attentively. I cough awkwardly.

"I'll, uhm, get the stuff in the trunk." I bite my lip and walk to the back of the car where the trunk has already been open.

"I'm going to find Austin!" Jen tells us before running off, waving excitedly at me. She suddenly makes a heart with her hands and points it to me and Troy. My jaw drops as she laughs and sticks her tongue out. I'm so going to get her back later. Me and Troy? No way Jose. She's so sickeningly lovesick, she's not thinking right. I grab the handle of the cooler, but before I even get to take it out, a warm hand stopped.

"Whoa now, you don't think I'm going to let you carry this are you?" Troy smiles charmingly at me while he takes the cooler out. I roll my eyes but smile back. I'm doing a lot of smiling today.

"I'm not that weak pretty boy." I reply grabbing the large blanket and the bag of chips. I hear him mumble sarcastically. "Come on, enough teasing me on my petite body figure and let's find Shar and Tay before we find Zeke."

I look around and it wasn't that hard to find them because Sharpay's outfit will catch anyone's eye. It's bright pink. Like bright, bright, bright, your eyes are going to burn pink. But it's still really cute. I think she is the only one that can pull off that kind of outfit. I shout out their names and laugh at the relief on their faces when they see me. They walk towards me as fast as they can with their heels.

"Thank goodness you guys are here already. Me and Shar were looking like we were freaking lost here," Taylor says before Chad picks her up and starts swinging her around, kissing her everywhere. That boy is whipped. I roll my eyes at them before turning to Sharpay.

"So who's that hot guy you were talking about?" I ask her taking a seat on the cooler Troy is pulling. Sharpay's face light up.

"OMG, he is like amazing sexy," she gushes jumping up and down. She starts looking around for him again.

"Sexier than me?" Troy asks wiggling his eyebrows. I laugh sarcastically before slapping his arm. Sharpay is too occupied looking for her hot guy.

"You're such a loser."

"Ah, but I'm your loser."

Okay, I did not expect that coming. My loser? Was that a joke or something? I mean, my? As in mine? Before I even got to reply, Sharpay starts slapping my arm repeatedly letting me know she spotted him. She points at him and my jaw drops. OMG.

"I know! He's _that_ hot isn't he? I had so much pleasure looking at him. He is so damn freaking sexy! He's-."

I cut her off when I get the chance. "He's Zeke."

Sharpay looks at me in shock. "Are you kidding me? You know that sexy piece of man?"

Troy laughs at her choice of words. "Wow, she seems obsessed."

"Shut it Bolton," she snaps at him before turning back to me. "INTRODUCE ME!"

"Big Bear!" I yell hoping Zeke can hear me. I wave my hand when his head turns in my direction. He waves back at me before motioning us to come. Sharpay is still in shock.

"Wow, for once in her very pink life, Sharpay Evans is fucking speechless. Call the hospital!" Troy exclaims throwing his hands in the air dramatically. I giggle as Sharpay punches him in the arm forcefully. His face twists in pain as he rubs his sore spot.

"Come on, let's go. I want me some cookies," I say walking ahead. Everyone starts to follow me towards Zeke. Once we reach him, I give him a hug and we do our handshake.

"Hey, hey cookie monster. I baked extra just incase." He teases before introducing himself to everyone else he didn't know. When his gaze meets Sharpay's, he freezes. Time to play cupid.

"I-I-I-I'm ugh, I'm-." Oh help me God; I think that boy forgot his name.

"Zeke," I help out, telling him with my eyes to chill out.

"Yeah, my names Zeke." He sounds so nervous. I guess I don't have to try hard to get them together. Sharpay is just staring at him. Oh man, not her too! Troy's right, maybe we need to call a hospital for her.

"Shar, I think he wants to know your name too honey," I tell her slowly. I pinch her arm snapping her out of her dreamland. Me and Taylor look at each other knowingly. I can tell she knows that they are so into each other already. She smiles and draws a heart with a finger around them. I nod in agreement.

"Huh? Oh right, my name. I'm Sharpay." She finally says smiling shyly at him. Her uneven breathing can be heard from a mile away. I never thought I would live to see the day when a man would take Sharpay's breath away. He offers her his hand and she immediately takes it. They just stay like that.

"So where's the food?" Amanda impatiently asks. Oh yeah, I completely forgot she was pregnant and needs food all the time. I thought that Amanda's interruption was going to snap Zeke and Shar out of their handshake, but it didn't. Wow, can you say love at first sight? Troy helps me unfold the unnaturally large blanket that surprisingly all of us can fit on.

"Austin's here!" Jen yells as we all turn to the direction her voice came from seeing her and Austin running up to us hand in hand. The bag he's carrying is holding the plates and utensils we need. Zeke and Shar's never ending handshake was the first thing that catches Jen's eye when they reach us. She raises her eyebrow at me and I give her a thumbs up. A smile graces her face as she decides to end their handshake.

"OMG! CHAD! YOU'RE PREGNANT!" she yells loudly jumping up and down, pointing at him, drawing unwanted attention to Chad. Everyone starts to crack up as Chad hides his face in Taylor's neck.

"Jen!" he exclaims telling her to shut up. I look at Shar and Zeke and see their hands have finally stopped shaking. They are looking at Chad very weirdly though. I would too if I didn't know what was going on.

"Oh man, that was hilarious," I praise giving my best friend a high five.

"So where's the food?" Amanda asks again, sitting down on the blanket between Matt's legs. Can they get any cuter? We all join them and take seats on the blanket. Zeke takes out his creations sent from heaven and we all dig in. Of course, I immediately went for the cookies. They are just so, so, so, good. I can live off them. They melt in your mouth. So yummy. I look up from my heavenly treats and see everyone else enjoying the food too. I had to giggle at Amanda. Instead of taking a slice of cheesecake, she took the whole thing and fork. At least she's satisfied. I turn to the hopefully future couple and see them quietly talking to themselves. I knew they would be good together. I'm just good like that. Hahahahaa.

"Damn Brie, you weren't kidding when you were talking about Zeke's cooking," Troy says to me as he stuffs one of Zeke's famous burgers into his mouth. He offers me a bite and I take one. Why not? He smiles at me. Luckily after he finished chewing. He picks up a cookie and takes a bite. His eyes widen making me giggle.

"These are insane!" He takes another huge bite out the cookie and sighs. Yeah, Zeke's cooking just takes you into a happy place. I laugh and steal a piece of my favorite cookie out of his hand. "Hey! That's my cookie."

He feeds me another bite and I take it without complaining. Who am I to pass up a free cookie from Troy Bolton? Suddenly, there were shadows hovering over us.

"Fancy seeing you here beautiful." Oh fuck shit fuck shit doo doo fucking asshole. It's Joey. How the hell did he find me!?

I look up and see him with his stupid friends. I roll my eyes at him and give him the finger.

"Aw, come on baby. Don't be like that." He kneels down to me and grabs my arm. I try to pull away but he's too strong. Everyone stands up, ready to help. Then I feel Troy's arm go around my shoulders.

"Hey man, that's my baby you're hitting on." Troy coldly tells Joey. I look up him in shock as he gives me a look to play along with it. He picks us both up to stand.

"Shit, whatevers. I know you guys are playing. Gabriella doesn't have a boyfriend, and if she did, it would be me," Joey replies just as cold putting his arm around me, pushing Troy's off. I push his arm off me when he got distracted and lean my body into Troy to show Joey that we aren't faking, even if we are. I can honestly say Troy's body against mine isn't so bad. Wait, did I just say that?

"That would be never." Troy kisses my cheek, leaving it there for a few seconds. I feel everyone's eyes on me and my cheeks flame. "She's mine buddy. Leave her the fuck alone." The protectiveness in his voice was astounding and it sounded so real. I almost believed him myself. "You don't know anything about her."

"I know she's fucking hot and that should would look so sexy looking up at me while she sucking me off," Joey replies smugly. My jaw drops. What a dickhead! I bet there's nothing for a girl to suck on anyway!

Troy's anger is not hiding. He lunges forward but Chad holds him back. "Get the fuck away from Brie before I have to get involved."

"What's Mr. Lakers superstar wannabe going to do about huh? Throw a basketball at me? You are nothing but a piece of fucking Bolton trash that got lucky. Have fun fucking spreading Aids in LA?"

Oh hell to the mother fucking hell no. I raise my hand to slap him but Troy stops me.

"Its okay baby girl, we'll prove it to him that we aren't faking." Troy says wrapping his arms around me tighter. I almost choke on my own spit.

Troy Bolton say what?! I look at the girls with my eyes wide. Their eyes are wide too. I can tell they want to step in but don't know what to do. What the hell does he mean to prove it?!

"Prove it?" I squeak quietly looking up at him. I can see an apology in Troy's eyes before I feel his lips against mine. My eyes widen even more as I begin to kiss back. His lips are perfect. They are so soft. I let my eyes lids fall and wrap my arms around his neck. I can feel his tongue against my bottom lip so I let my mouth open. OMG, this has to be the best kiss I've ever gotten. Before it could get any further, we hear a loud cough behind us. Jen. I pull back instantly in shock. Troy looks at me with an unreadable expression on his face and licks his lips.

"You know what, fuck it. I just wanted to get between your legs anyway." Joey spats at me. Instead of me slapping him, Troy punches him square in the face. I get this weird feeling in me watching it happen. I don't know what it is. The guys pull Troy back before he can do anything else and I pull him to me. I look in his blue eyes, wondering what's going on in my mind and realize.

It's amazing how much can change in a few hours and I have a crush on _the_ Troy Bolton.

Oh shit talking chocolate chip cookies. That is surely going to bring trouble.

**A.N. If you think that I'm going to let Troy and Gabriella get together that easy, you are far from being right. They will have their own problems coming up soon. I want this story to last. I'm not going to end it so soon. Keep your eye out for the next chapter! It may be a little rushed, but you'll find out why in the next chapter, plus its one in the morning and I have school tomorrow. I'm happy I finally got a new chapter up.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A.N. Okay, I know I haven't updated in like forever. I'm insanely super sorry. So many things are going on in my life and I've only found some time to finish this chapter. Every time I think I'm going to finish it, something comes up. So, I think I have replied to every review right? I believe I did. I might not be answering them within a week but I try. Woo Whoo! Up to three hundred reviews! Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! I really absolutely positively superdeduperly appreciate them. I hope you all enjoy this chapter! (:**

Chapter Ten

**I'm** on crack.

Someone is drugging my food with any drug you can possibly think of.

That is the only explanation for my sudden crush on Troy Bolton. I mean, how the hell can I have a fucking crush on him? It is so unbelievable but not impossible, which I though it was. I swear, I think somebody is putting a little something something in my food. Do you think Zeke would drug me? Nah, I'm totally kidding. Those chocolate chip cookies might have done something to my brain because I am still staring at Troy like an idiot after Joey left. I must look like dumb ass just staring at him.

"Oh shit. Oh fucking elephant shit! Troy, you just kissed my best friend!" Jen exclaims in shock waving her hands at me. That snaps me out of my staring contest with him. My head whips in her direction and I look at her in with a helpless face.

"I…" Troy trailed off looking at me a little longer before looking back at our group of friends and his relatives. He what?

"You liked it!" Chad accuses smirking at his long time best friend. My eyes, as well as everyone else's, widen. Pssh, he was just trying to help me get away from Joey. Yeah, that's just all. He can't have a crush on me. I just know it.

"Gabs, we need to talk. Right this second," Sharpay orders, pulling me away with her thin, but surprisingly strong, arms with the other girls following behind quickly. I find myself being forced onto one of the swings. This is a good place to talk; we are a good distance away so that none of the guys could hear.

"Gabriella Elizabeth Michelle Montez, do you like Troy David Alexander Bolton?" Jen asked eying me suspiciously, probably already knowing the answer that question. Amanda looks at me with that you-better-tell-the-truth look stuffing some cheesecake into her mouth that she had brought with her. Sharpay and Taylor look at me knowingly with that expression that tells me I know they can see through any of my lies. Oh great. I hang out with them too much. I can't get away with anything anymore. Aww, shoots.

"Geez Bubbles, what's up with the full names? You could've just said our first names you know. It would've saved you a lot of breath that you wasted on saying our middle names." I answer trying to change the subject, nodding my head like I know what I'm talking about.

"Honey, you just wasted a whole lot of breath trying to change the subject," Sharpay responds quickly at my weak attempt.

"And Troy David Alexander Bolton is looking this way wondering what the hell we're talking about so we better make it quick Gabi," Taylor adds nodding at Troy's direction.

"Plus, you don't want to keep a pregnant woman like me waiting for an answer, no do you?" Amanda says rubbing her swollen belly. "The baby will love you forever."

I hate it when they gang up on me. Crap, I can't lie to save my life with them. Why am I so weak?! I cannot get out of this. I hesitate to think of an answer.

"Uh honey, you better hurry up with your answer because your Romeo is on his way over here," Taylor urges as they all give me looks of impatience.

"Patience is a virtue ladies," I chide, stalling more time. Jen pinches me on the arm. "Ow! Okay, maybe a little bit. It's a very diminutive crush."

Amanda drops her fork and stares at me like I have a nipple on my forehead. I would too after I processed what came out of my mouth.

"I knew it!" Sharpay, Taylor, and Jen all exclaim at the same time.

"I saw it first!"

"No I did!"

"She looked at me first! So HA!"

"Hold up! What the hell did you guy see first?!" I yell trying to break up their argument.

"I thought you guys weren't even friends yet," Amanda mutters, looking down disappointingly at the fork she dropped holding the cake firmly, not wanting to drop that too. "Never expected that."

"We saw that look in her eyes," Jen informs using her hands to make a heart around her right eye. Sharpay and Taylor nod in agreement.

"What look?" I argue pulling down the top of my cheek to make my eyes larger.

"You just looked so, so, I don't know," Sharpay tries to elaborate but that wasn't much help. "You kind of glowed-ish, sort of."

"It hard to understand but you practically had tiny hearts in your eyes," Taylor explains.

"Oh my gosh guys, just because I have a c-." Jen suddenly slaps her hand against my mouth as I see Troy come up behind her. Thank goodness she can just slap me or else I would've died if he heard what I was about to say.

"You have a what…?" Troy asks looking at all of us suspiciously.

"I have a severe case of c-coulrophobia." I quickly cover. The girls look at me, having what the heck that is. Thank goodness I like to read, even if it is about the stupidest stuff.

"What the hell is that?" Sharpay cuts in. Geez Shar, at least try and go along to what I'm saying! I love her anyway, no matter how ditzy she can be.

"A fear of clowns," I explain but everyone still looks at me funnily. I sigh, "You know, clowns! They have big red hair, pale scary faces, and are going to hide in a sewer and find you and eat you!"

"Nice save," Taylor praises quietly.

"Thanks," I whisper back.

"Yeah, she does. She was finally telling us how bad her fear was. I think she thought you looked like one and scared her off," Jen says to Troy like it totally made sense, which in her mind, it was the perfect excuse because I really am terrified of clowns.

"Jen, shut up."

"You shut up Bolton."

Oh gosh, another Bolton sibling altercation.

"Bolton is your last name too stupid."

"Yeah, so?"

"Troy, shut up," Sharpay growls, rolling her eyes. I hold back a smile as I see Troy shut his mouth, holding back whatever he was about to say. Sharpay can be scary sometimes. She added fiercely, "You ruined a very important conversation."

"Well I only ruined it because you looked like you all were going to eat Brie or something over here," Troy retorts putting his arm around my shoulders. Can you say awkward? "Oh and Manda, Matt is worrying about you so I suggest you calm him down before he calls the navy, army, or whatever military force he was going to call."

"Well, I'm going to comfort my worrying husband. Ladies, we will finish this conversation later without," she throws a quick annoyed glance at Troy, "any interruptions by a certain lovable brother in law of mine."

Troy smiles innocently at her as she begins to walk away. Wow, this is really awkward.

"Me and Brie have to talk," Troy tells the girls bluntly. "Can you please go be lovey dovey with your boyfriends, and in your case Sharpay, future boyfriend while we chat?"

Sharpay opened her mouth but quickly closed it before speaking, "Troy, if you weren't one of my best friends, I would have shaved your hair off for that comment but since you are, I'm just going go smack you in the back of your head."

And she did just that. I laugh loudly, covering my mouth when Troy glares at me.

"You're lucky me and Taylor aren't like that or else we would've slapped you too," Jen informs proudly shaking her head. I look at her incredulously trying to hold back my giggle as Taylor nods in agreement.

"Yeah, you guys are far from that," Troy replies sarcastically. Oh geeze. Here it comes, one slap, two slap. Ouch. How can that mouth charm so many girls? Wait, I should know. When Jen, Taylor, and Sharpay start walking away, I realize I have to talk to Troy. Oh crap. I look at them in a frenzy of panic telling them with my eyes not to leave me but they have no choice. All they do is shrug apologetically and mouth to me to tell them what happens. Here comes hell.

"Troy, I'm really hungry so I'm going to follow them and grab me some cookies." I smile innocently before swiftly turning around but he catches my waist with his arm and pulls me back. I stare at his chest so I don't have to look him in the eyes as he tells me whatever he wants to tell me.

"You know you aren't really slick about changing the subject there Brie. We have to talk," he tells me softly, using his finger to make me look into his eyes. Oh fudge, they are so freaking blue and beautiful. I'm on drugs!

"Talk about what?" I like playing stupid sometimes, especially if it helps with stalling unwanted conversations with a certain blue eyed fellow.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do."

"No I don't."

"Brie…" Troy seems frustrated as he tightens his grip on my waist.

"Troy…"

"Brie…"

"Troy David Alexander Bolton."

"Gabriella Elizabeth Michelle Montez."

"My name has more letters! What son!" Hahahaa, no idea where that came from.

"Son?"

And people tell me I'm not good at changing subjects. Shoots, I'm kick ass!

"Yeah, well, I'm going to get me some cookies." I slip away from Troy's grasp for like two seconds before he processes what's happening in his brain and then grabs me again.

"Oh no you don't. Shut that non-stop mouth of yours and listen to what I have to say," Troy says holding my shoulders in place. Okay, so I was kick ass at changing subjects two seconds ago.

I look up at him, giving him a sign to go on to whatever he is going to say promising I will listen, even if I don't want to hear it.

"I know what I just did what completely inappropriate. I'm really sorry, but that Joey guy was such an ass!" I giggle, nodding my head in agreement. This is the exact opposite I thought he was going to say. "Anyway, we are just started to build a friendship and I don't want to lose that. I really care for you. I have so many things to tell you but I don't think you're ready for it yet. I don't think I'm even ready. So can we just forget about that kiss," a blush graces his cheeks, "and deal with the results of that later?"

What things? Ugh, next time I come up with a plan, I have to think it through first. Who knew Troy could be so deep and caring? I do now.

"That would be perfect." I agree, giving him a hug, but he doesn't let go of me. I'll ask him about the 'things' later. "I really care about you too, and I don't want a kiss," that made me crush on you, "to ruin our upcoming friendship." Maybe more than friendship…

"That made my day," He tells me softly, giving me a kiss on the forehead.

I roll my eyes, giving him a friendly punch on the arm. "Troy, you are such a charmer."

"I know!" He admits smugly, "but that's why I'm so lovable."

Oh boy you have no idea. "More like annoying."

"We better get back up there before they think I murdered you or something."

I laugh, knowing that could happen. "Yeah, and I want cookies."

"Race you there?"

"Alright superstar," I accept but before I could even go, a hand gets pushed into my face. "Troy! That was so not fair!" I scream as I run to catch up.

When we get there, all the girls look at me with impatiently, knowing I can't tell them what went on between me and Troy. Knowing them, they are probably thinking something naughty. I have the best weirdest set of friends don't I? It's hard not to love them.

**Before **I knew it, it passed several hours and we were on our way back to the Bolton house. The future Mr. and Mrs. Baylor's exchanged numbers and are hopefully, and I think I'm right, are going to go on a date soon. I think me, Jen, and Taylor can come up with a plan to get her ready and make Zeke's heart stop. That would be hilarious, on my part though.

Amanda also got a lot of Zeke's recipes, but that was only after she threatened him that he will have to move in with her and be her chef if she couldn't cook it on her own.

I did tell the girls what happened when they cruelly left me alone with Troy. The only chance we got was if we said we had to go the bathroom. Since guys know girls go to the bathroom in groups, I don't think Troy or any of the other boys thought that much about it. Now, my right ear is deaf, mostly from Sharpay and Jen, and I know I have to watch my back if those three girls are planning some kind of plot to get me and Troy together before we are even friends. We're almost to that level. I just know it.

We stayed at the park for a heck of a long time. It's like nine o'clock now. I'm hellaaaah' tired. Jen is exhausted, she fell asleep on my shoulder as soon as we got in the car. Five minutes later, we're here. I wake Jen up so Matt or Troy don't have to carry her in.

"Bubbles! Wakey wakey!" She did not move a muscle. I whack her a few times. Still get nothing. "We're at your house, you can fall asleep on your nice warm bed."

Opes, that did the trick, she shot up, grabbed my arm, and ran straight to the door.

We run up to her room and just flop on the bed. Nice comfy bed. I think I might just pass out. Especially with all those basketball games I played to day, I'm worn out. We talk for about an hour, trying to keep sleep away as long as possible.

"I can't believe you like my brother," Jen admits quietly, laughing to herself. "Even if you guys are incredibly cute together. Don't do anything naughty in that bed of his tonight honey," She teases.

I laugh and hit her with one of the many pillows that occupy her bed. "Shut up. Its nothing like that."

"Yet," she corrected, wiggling her finger at me like she knows it's going to happen.

"Well we both better get some sleep before we pass out tomorrow," I get off her bed and stretch. "You can text your man candy tomorrow. Get some sleep babes!"

I so know that once I leave the room she's going to text her lover. She laughs and rolls her eyes.

"Good night, _Brie_."

I give her the middle finger jokingly as I hear her laugh more as I walk down the hall to Troy's room. When I open the door, I see him in nothing but his boxers pulling off his shirt. Oh my gosh, I think I just has a freaking orgasm from just looking at him. All those muscles ripping and that perfect tan. He knows I have a crush on him and now trying to kill me. I know it. Stupid crush on Troy Bolton!

"Hey Brie," he greets, smiling as I walk to the closet to get some closes.

"Hey Troy," I answer picking out some comfy pj's and then running to the bathroom to try them on. I decide to wear short silk shorts and my old basketball t-shirt. I walk out and instantly jump in the bed and make myself comfortable.

"I'm going to watch some T.V., do you mind?" Troy asks, reaching for the remote.

I shake my head, "Nopes, I'll probably passed out in the next ten minutes anyway. Good night Troy"

He chuckles and pushes hair out of his eyes. "Whatever you say. Sweet dreams. Good night Brie."

That's exactly what Jen said to me! Except for the sweet dreams part.

About five minutes later, my eyes become heavy and start to close. The last thing I hear though, became my lullaby for the night.

"Chad was right Brie, I did like it."

**There it is! Sorry for a few grammar mistakes, I'll fix those later. I hope you like it! Pretty please, a thousand times review! And then I'll reply to all them of! (:**

**Sorry it's kind of short! I'll make the next one longer.**

**-xoxoxo**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

**Have** you ever felt like you knew everything about a person but ended up being mistaken about who they truly are, or who they've become, changed into?

**Well**, if you have, I know exactly how you feel. When I saw Troy Bolton after waking up from a short nap, I instantly thought he was the same asshole who treated me like crap ever since I met him. When he asked me to be his friend, I thought he was just saying that because of how my appearance changed, but now, all the doubts I had in my head disappeared. He's truly trying and that's getting to me, well, way past getting to me. It's amazing what a month and a half can do for you. Today though, is the day I was going to be switching into the guest bedroom. As of today, I will not be sharing a room with Troy.

And I'm fucking bummed.

I woke up this morning, feeling as light as a feather from what Troy said to me last night, even though he didn't know I heard him, but still. It gave me a tingly feeling, and then it all went down the drain. Laura Bolton came into the room and told me the guest bedroom was finally finished. Two weeks overdue but it was done. She just happened to be picking up laundry from each room and found me awake. I knew my head was right about sleeping is good. Of course, I pretended to be happy, but now I'm lying on Troy's bed for the last time, waiting for someone to wake me up from my pretend sleep.

I hear Troy waking up. He yawns super loudly. Geez boy, any louder and Japan will hear it. I can imagine him flipping his hair and then rubbing his eyes. I keep my eyes closed though, no matter how much I want to open them.

"Good morning Brie," he greets and then kisses me on my forehead. Holy moly guacamole, he kissed me on my forehead. Does he do that every morning when he thinks I'm asleep?

I let out a fake moan of grogginess and yawn. I rubbed my eyes and smiled at him, "Good morning sunshine."

"I was going to go take a shower, but you can go first if you want…?" He suggested sitting back on the couch. He leaned back lazily and closed his eyes.

"Oh thank you so much." Yes! Less awkwardness. I can let the nice hot water melt my stress away. I jump up a little too quickly, and my foot gets twisted in the comforter once I take a step off the floor. I squeal and then ram into something hard. And sexy. So much for less awkwardness. I land right on top of Troy.

I groan and open my eyes "Sorry."

"Its okay, no harm, no foul," he tells me rubbing his hand gently down my back, creating little shockwaves to go through my system. I smile at him gently before standing up. I fell something rough against the bottom of my foot. Did I step on something? I look down and see a crumpled piece of paper.

"I was up last night, messing with my guitar and some words that came to mind. Sorry, I guess I forgot to put them away last night," he explains sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Wait, guitar and paper? What the hell was he doing with that?

"You play the guitar?" I ask amazed. Wow, just add to the freaking perfectness why don't you?

"From time to time," is all he says before his eyes widen a little. I look at him confused before I realized he was staring at the papers that were scattered across the floor. I notice that all the papers are crumpled into little balls, except one. Troy looks at me like he knows what I'm thinking and his eyes widen even more. I immediately dive to the ground away from Troy as soon as he realized what I was going to do. It didn't hurt that much, I really want to know if he wrote a song on this. And he did. Oof! He tackles me! What a doo doo ball! Luckily I'm tiny and was lucky enough to escape when he loosed his grasp a smidge.

"Brie, don't read that. It's not very good," he says looking down. Awwww, he's blushing. My eyes scan the paper briefly before feeling butterflies in my stomach. Can you swat butterflies you feel in your tummy? I skim through the words again, processing them in my head. The song is beautiful. Wow, this is not really helping with the not liking him part and adding way more to the crush part. Oh boy.

"Troy, it's…" He doesn't even let me finish what I was going to say before he starts rambling.

"Yes, I know it's shitty and completely pointless, but I told you not to read it." He keeps his eyes down while continuing his self-humbling harangue. I roll my eyes at his modesty. He's usually a cocky guy, but it's nice to see him not so confident about everything he does.

"Will you shut up?" I demand, already getting irked with his cluelessness of that amazing song. He immediately shuts him mouth and smiles shyly. "Troy, that song is amazing. It could make any girl's heart melt. Not very good my ass!"

He laughs, but then sighs. "Not many people know about my music. Only my family, and Chad."

"Chad?" I ask raising my eyebrows. Chad isn't that musically diverse. He loves music and all but only certain types. I understand about his family, I mean, they have to hear him play even though he's in his room. I guess Jen never told me because she thought it was annoying.

"Well, he is my best friend, and he walked in on my tweaking on the guitar, so I had to tell him."

I smile shyly, eying the guitar. "Will you play right now?"

"That song? Right now? To you?" Troy asks nervously and a little bit shocked, pointing to the paper that's still in my hands.

"You don't have to, I mean, I was just asking. I totally understand if you don't want to," I say to make him more comfortable. Honestly, I would be a wee bit disappointed if I didn't get to hear him play.

"Will I have to sing?" He asks picking up his guitar.

"Isn't that a guarantee?" I mean, right? He has to sing for me to listen to those incredible words on that sheet of paper.

"Okay, but if you happen to hate it, feel free to just hit me with a pillow or run and puke your guts out," he tells me jokingly. "But you can tell me when to stop."

I nod excitedly and jump back on the bed so I can get a good view of him on the couch. He takes a long deep breath before starting.

_Is it possible maybe to have a love so strong  
That nothing could ever compare  
I'm holding back nothing just for the look in your eyes  
So baby don't be surprised_

_Well I want to know what makes your world go round  
And I want to hear your voice for the sound  
A love that defines all I've had in mind  
Now I'm holding back nothing for the look in your eyes_

_*small guitar break*_

_Impossible, maybe, but worth one last try  
I'm waiting on your reply  
I'm sitting here patiently just for the chance that I might be able to hold you tight  
And I want to know what makes your world go round  
And I want to hear your voice for the sound  
A love that defines all I've had in mind  
Now I'm holding back nothing for the look in your eyes_

_Now time is all that we have  
So won't you let me inside your perfect world for one night  
Just open up for me  
Girl I swear that I will be everything you've ever thought a man should be_

_And I want to know what makes your world go round  
And I want to hear your voice for the sound  
A love that defines all I've had in mind  
Now I'm holding back nothing for the look in your..._

_I can see the way you're lookin' back at me  
Oooh... Could it be that you see what you want to see  
Just let your eyes believe it  
I'll never lie to you, in my arms you will be, forever and I...  
I'm holding back nothing for the look in your eyes  
The look in your eyes... *guitar fades out*_

I am absolutely memorized. He can sing. My heart just melted. I'll probably have to pee it out later. I just stare at him. He looks a bit nervous while he plucks the last few notes. I really don't want the song to end. It was just as amazing as I thought it would be. The butterflies already in my stomach just made a billion babies. When he finishes, he looks up at me and smiles shyly.

"That was incredible!" I exclaim, throwing up my arms for effect. "You singing that song can make any girl's heart melt."

Just like mine did. Stupid guitar playing amazing song writing basketball player who is related to my best friend.

"Really? Thanks. Are you sure it didn't sound stupid or desperate or anything?"

"Hell no. It's perfect."

Ugh! Now I'm even more bummed to be moving into the guest room. I just realized I had to move all my stuff there. How fun.

"I'll take a shower later, I have to pack. You go first," I tell him sadly. I get up from the bed, but only to be pulled into the couch.

"Pack? Why the fuck are you packing? Summer doesn't end for another three weeks and I didn't piss you off right?" he says. Aw, he wants me to stay.

"I'm not packing to go to Europe!" I laugh and he shakes his head confused.

"Then why are you packing? Are you sleeping in Jen's room now? I thought her room was too small, hence the sleeping arrangement now."

"You're rambling. I'm moving to the guest room. Your mom came in and told me this morning, before I fell asleep again." I added that last part in just in case he thought I was awake during the forehead kiss.

Troy is quiet for a few seconds before he yells, "You're what?!"

I look at him like he's freaking insane. I'm pretty sure he didn't eat anything jank yesterday. I pull myself off the couch awkwardly. "I'm moving into the guest room…?" I say unsure. It sounded like a question.

"But how, when, why?" he asks trying to help me pack. He's helping me pack but is freaking out about me sleeping in the guest room for now on? What the hell is going on?

"You're mom said it would be done in a month." I shrug and slap his hand before he opens the drawer where my panties and bras are.

"It's been a month already?

I look at him weirdly. "Yeah, where the hell have you been? Actually, a month and two weeks, but who's counting."

"I'll help you move your stuff after I take a shower," he tells me before walking away quickly. Okay, that was seriously not the reaction I was thinking I was going to get. I thought he was going to be happy since he gets to have his room for himself again. Guys are so weird. And complicated. Why can't they come with like a freaking manual that tells you everything? Ugh, I need my best friend. I jog to Jen's room, which only takes me like two seconds and walk in. She's sleeping with her cell phone in her hand. I shake my head and charge her cell phone. She's going to need all the battery she can get.

I shake her gently. "Jen, wake up, your super awesome best friend is here."

She doesn't move. I have to think. What will Jen wake up for? She knows Austin is coming over later so I doubt she will be able to hear that. Hmmm…

"Jen! TAYLOR LAUTNER is downstairs _shirtless_!" I scream and jump on her bed excitedly.

Taylor Lautner has to be the best looking guy I've ever seen. Besides Troy. Taylor has those gorgeous muscles and plays a freaking werewolf. Can he get any hotter? He has the hottest v cut I've ever seen. Besides Troy's.

Jen immediately jumps up and looks around frantically, trying to fix her bed hair. "WHERE?!"

I let out a loud laugh as she glares at me. I shrug and jump in her bed.

"That was mean. I got excited," she chides, pinching my arm. I giggle a little more until she slaps me.

"I am seriously confused," I vent. "Your brother needs to come with fucking instructions. I tell him I have to pack after he sings and then he like freaks out. He thought I was going to go to Europe. Then I tell him I'm going to sleep in the guest room. He is like shocked and I'm like what the hell because he started to help me pack! I mean, he doesn't want me to leave but he's helping me pack even faster…?"

"Okay, I did not catch anything you just said. Honey, I must be rubbing off on you 'cause you talked freaking hellah fast. The only thing that processed was that he sang to you. Wait, _HE SANG TO YOU?!_"

I wince at her voice. I guess it didn't process that fast. I don't know what the big deal is. I mean, she heard him sing before too right? Their rooms are next to each other.

"Yeah, so…?"

Suddenly she picks up a book lying on her side table and whacks me with it.

"OW! What was freak was that for? Duuuuuuuuuude, it is not nice to hit a person in the morning!" I exclaim rubbing my now painful arm.

"This is HUGE, like _HUMONGOS!_ He doesn't just sing for anybody. Fuck the last and first time I ever heard him sing was two weeks after he got the guitar in his freshman year. Then he screamed at me to 'mind my own business and listen to my own voice.' He played so much my parents wanted to sound proof the freaking walls! Imagine that, you two could have hot passionate sex and nobody would hear! He just plays at night now and sings somewhere we can't hear him," she rants.

"Hot, passionate sex?" I question looking at her weirdly. She raises her eyebrows at me.

"Oh you know you wanted to," Jen teases wiggling her fingers at me. You would think that she would think me and her brother together is weird, but she has no problem with it. Amazing.

I roll my eyes and flick her off. She laughs before she strangely screams. I cover my ears and shut my eyes. Did she see a bug?

"EW! DISGUSTING NAKED IMAGE!"

I laugh loudly, throwing my head back. She deserved it. But it's weird considering she just pictured me, her best friend in whole wide world, and her older brother having sex. We hear a loud crash before the door suddenly gets thrown open and we see Troy, Jack, and Matt looking worried.

"What's wrong? Brie, Jen, what the fuck are you guys doing in here?!"

"What happened!? Did someone get hurt?"

"What the hell blew up my ear drums?!"

I take a good look at the three men before cracking up harder. They all look so funny. Matt is only in his grey boxers with a wet spot the made it look like he pissed himself. Uncle Jack has a few wet spots on his t-shirt and sweat pants. It looks like his nipples leaked or something. But neither were worse than Troy. Troy only had a wildcat red towel around his waist and he was dripping wet. From head to toe. I have to admit as funny as he looks trying to make sure the towel doesn't fall, he looks freaking sexy.

Jen, who was laughing with me, is the first one to gain her breath and speak. "What happened to you guys? Troy, why are you naked?"

I giggle again as they blush at how their appearances are. Troy turns red as red as a tomato.

"We heard you scream and ran here. We all freaking bumped into each other and fell on our asses, which is seriously going to leave a bruise on the bum. Troy gave us these wet spots. HAHA! Dad! It looks like your nipples leaked booby milk!"

We all burst into laughter after Matt's words, well Uncle Jack only chuckled before smacking Matt on the back of the head.

"At least I didn't piss myself. I thought we potty trained you well son," Uncle Jack counters his son's comment, shaking his head in fake disappointment.

Matt looks down and blushes at the relatively large wet spot by his dingy. "That wasn't me! Troy!"

"Hey don't look at me dude, I didn't pee on you." Troy holds up only one arms because the other one secures his towel in place. We just continue to giggle at Matt's embarrassment.

"DADDY! You peed on yourself! Gross!" An excited, but disgusted Edward came running through the doors, pointing at his dad.

"Eddie, that wasn't me! It was Uncle Troy!" Matt tries to explain to his son.

Edward's face scrunches up in more disgust. "He peed on you?! Now that's just wrong! Uncle Troy, don't pee on me too!"

"No Eddie! Wait!" Troy tried to stop him but the toddler already ran back to his mommy. Matt shakes his head while he and Uncle Jack follow him down stairs leaving Troy with us. He huffs and tightens his hold on the towel, looking awkward. "Well, I'm going to finish drying…"

He leaves quickly out the room before me or Jen could utter a word.

I look at her and smile, "Well, that wasn't weird at all. Such a typical morning."

She nods. "At the Bolton household with a Montez thrown in, hell yeah."

**After** I hang out with Jen in her room, she takes a shower while I bring all my stuff to the guest room. Troy didn't really need to help me but he did anyway. When we were done, I took a shower and slipped on some blue Juicy Couture sweats because we didn't really have that many plans today.

I skip down the stair for some yummy breakfast I can smell from my 'new room.'

"Good morning," I properly greet before sitting at the seat in the middle of Jen and Troy. I grab a Belgium waffle and smother it with strawberries and whip cream. The absolute best breakfast ever.

"Good morning," they all course, grabbing their own food.

"So what are the plans today?" I asked before taking a bite out of my waffle.

"How about we go to the movies? Some pretty good ones are out, I think," Troy suggested.

"_NEW MOON_!" Jen exclaims once Troy finishes talking. We all jump from fright and look and face her. "We are so going to watch that! Taylor Lautner and his wolf pack are like DAMN!"

"Jen, language." Jack scolds his daughter lightly. She smiles innocently as an apology.

"No way! I'm not going to watch that lame chick flick with you guys!" Troy protests. "Let's watch 2012 or something."

"Negative! Are you kidding me? I agree with Jen. Seeing Taylor Lautner and his wolf pack shirtless will make me way happier than see people die," I deny quickly at his movie suggestion.

"Come on Troy. You suggested going to the movies. You love vampires," Jen tries to convince her brother to go.

"Not the ones that glitter in the sunlight!"

I almost choke on my waffle after that comment.

"Come on Troy, you know you're on team Edward," Jen teases.

"Oh yeah, I just want him to bite me so we can be together forever and dazzle me with his sparkly-ness," Troy retorts sarcastically. "Eff that man."

"How about we just go shopping?" I suggest since we are going absolutely no where with the movie situation.

"Fine, I'd rather do that than have to put up with you drooling over Taylor Lautner."

"**Can** we go now?" Troy whines, having to carry most of our bags around the mall.

"Troy, it's not our fault that none of the guys could come so shut the fuck up," Jen demands getting irked by his persistent complaining.

"Yeah Troy, you agreed to go shopping instead of watching movies," I remind him, fixing the position of one of the bags I'm carrying.

"That was before I knew I would be alone with you two."

"It's nice to know how much you love spending time with us," I reply hitting him with a Hollister bag.

"We've only been here for two hours, a couple more won't kill you," Jen tells him before going into Pac Sun.

"I don't know about the truth factor of that statement."

"And I thought Sharpay was dramatic," I say looking for a new jacket. "Oh, this is pretty."

"You're pretty."

"Troy, stop trying to charm Gabriella into going home because you know it's not going to work. Don't make me force violence on you."

I laugh at their sibling banter. Every time, Jen catches onto his plots. Suddenly my phone starts vibrating and I answer the call. It's Laura.

"Hey auntie, what's up?"

"Gabi, we need you guys to come home right away. Please, this is important."

The urgency and the lack of warmth in her voice scares me. She's crying really hard and trying to hold it in so I can understand what she said. Something really bad happened.

"Okay, we're on our way."

"What's wrong?" Troy asks, concerned, once his sees my worried face.

"We have to get back to your house."

"What happened?" Jen questions, immediately dropping what she wanted to buy and starts leading us to the parking lot.

"I have no idea, but it sounds pretty bad judging by your mom's voice."

Thousands of scenarios run through my mind at once. Did something happen to Amanda? She's not due for another three months. Before I know it, we're pulling into the driveway and run out of the car to the house.

Once we enter the living room where everyone was, it was evident something horrible happened. The usual happy Bolton household was as if the happiness was sucked out of it. Laura and Amanda were on the couches sobbing against their husbands while Matt and Jack were trying their best to stay strong for them. Even I can see that tears have been shed from their own eyes.

"What happened?" Jen asked running over to consol her mom. Not many people know this, but Jen is pretty emotionally strong if it doesn't hit a weak spot.

Laura tries to pull herself together and pulls me to the seat next to her. She grabs my hand and looks me into my eyes sadly. This cannot be good.

"Honey, it breaks my heart to be the one to tell you this but, I'm going to have to," she tells me, trying to keep from sobbing some more. "Your mom had cancer."

I look at her like she's grown four heads. "What are you talking about? My mom doesn't have cancer! She's perfectly healthy! I just talked to her yesterday when we were at the freaking park! If she did, then she would've told me! Dad would've never let her leave her bed, let alone the damn country if he knew!"

"Gabriella, please listen to me. Your mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer two years ago. She didn't tell you because she knew you would drop everything to be with her. It was your junior and senior year and she didn't want to mess that up." She took a deep breath as more tears fall down her face. "Gabriella, she died this morning. Your father called and is now on a plane back here."

My head is spinning. I feel like I can't breathe. This is all a lie. My mom isn't dead. I didn't even get to see her for the last fucking month and a half. She's alive and I will be seeing her in two weeks before I go to college. She isn't dead. She would've told me. I'm her daughter for crying out loud. I feel like I'm suffocating. This isn't happening.

"Laura, I love you like a second mom, but I'm pretty sure my mom would tell me if she was going to die. My mom sounded perfectly healthy when I talked to her!"

I'm so fucking sick of playing this damn game. My mom is not fucking dead. I bet my parents are just waiting around somewhere to jump out at me and tell me this is some sick joke. I think back to the conversation I had with my mom yesterday…

"_Hey baby," my mom greets. She sounds a bit tired, but that's expected since it should be around midnight there. Dad is probably sleeping. _

"_Hey mom, why are you calling so late over there?" I ask, still tired from playing basketball. "How's your trip?"_

"_It's wonderful darling. I wish you could be here." She coughs a bit before laughing. "Your father is going crazy over the food."_

_I laugh too. "I bet._ _Dad's the only brave one in our family to try weird things."_

_We talk for over forty five minutes on what she and dad did that day before she says that she has to go._

"_Bye baby I have to go. I love you with all my heart. I'll miss you Ella. Remember, I'll always be here for you."_

"_Okay. Bye mommy, I love you too. I'll see you in a couple weeks!"_

"_Darling, please, just please promise me you'll always remember that I love you."_

"_Of course I do mom. I love you."_

"_Goodbye my angel."_

I snap back to reality. She wanted me to remember that she loves me. She knew. She knew she was going to die. She knew it and she couldn't even fly back here to see me one more time.

I scream out of pure agony. My heart is frozen. I can't breathe. My whole body is crumbling. It's like someone is slowly killing me from the inside out. I fall to the floor, only to have someone wrap their arms around me. The tears finally come and they won't stop. My body is consumed with sobs that I can't even hold myself up.

How am I going to live without her? She's my mom. My mommy. My one and only. She's my best friend, other than Jen. She taught me everything I know. How could she leave me?! Doesn't she know that I can't survive if she's not here? I've known her all my life and now suddenly she's gone. I can't handle a life without her by my side. She's one of the greatest women I will ever have the honor of meeting. I can't think straight. My mind is blinded by all images of her.

"Please come back, come back, I love you, please, come back, mommy, please, I love you," I mumble between sobs. "Come back to me, I'm sorry for all my sins God, just please give me my mom."

All my senses are drowned out of nothing but her. I can smell her perfume that she has worn since I was younger, I see her face smiling like we were on a girls day out. I can feel the last time she hugged me before she got on the plane to Europe. I can even hear her last words to me on the phone, _"Darling, please, just please promise me you'll always remember that I love you."_

I can feel myself breaking. The world is crashing all around me. I want my mom. I want her to tell me that everything is going to be okay and pick up the pieces of what's left of me like she usually does. But she can't. The mere thought of not ever hearing her voice or seeing the twinkle in her eye when she's proud of me makes me sick to the stomach. I feel like I need to vomit. I didn't even get to say goodbye in person. Why didn't they come back if she knew she was going to die? Didn't she want to see me again? My heart clenches. I want to see her one last time so much, with every fiber in my being.

I barely hear Troy trying to comfort me as I cry into his body. I look into his eyes and see he is crying as well.

"Troy?" I whisper grabbing a handful of his shirt.

"Yes baby?" He gently rocks me back and forth and repeatedly kisses my forehead as my sobs show no sign of stopping anytime soon.

"I want my mom. Please bring her back Troy. I want my mom! I want to see her one last time! BRING HER BACK NOW!"

"Brie," he says, wrapping his arms around me tighter, "I would want nothing more than to bring her back to you."

"I want her back, I want her back," I cry myself to sleep in Troy's arm mumbling the same thing over and over.

I am officially broken.

**A.N. VERY IMPORTANT!: PLEASE READ! IF YOU DO, YOU GET A COOKIE OR A SURPRISE WITH THE NEXT CHAPTER. **

**Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, I'm so sorry for the long wait. I've had writer's block and no free time on my hands. I also don't think I can reply to every single one of the reviews but I will try to reply to as much as I can. I hope this chapter was worth the wait(: I also hope you can forgive me for the insanely long wait. PLEASE REVIEW! (:**

**IMPORTANT: **

**I might also be changing my pen name, so it will be changed by the time the next chapter is out. It'll probably close to what it is now. **

**NEXT CHAPTER: **

**You will find out why Gabriella's parents were overseas and more Troyella. A lot of it is based on Gabriella's feelings. **


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

**It **all feels like one horrendous dream. Out of all things to happen, the worst possible thing occurs. My brain is dead. It seems like every single one of my thoughts is connected to my mom. They always end up with her. Yesterday's events seem so blurry. I don't remember what exactly happened after I was told. The only thing that comes to mind is me crying. That seems like the only thing I've been capable of doing. I must've been crying for hours since I woke up in my bed, well the guest room bed. One of the guys must've carried me up here.

Things seem so out of place. I have never wanted anything more than some more time with my mom, to at least say goodbye. I've taken my time with her for granted. She was, _is_ just one of those people who I thought would be in my life forever. I wish I hugged her longer. I wish I listened to her voice more. I wish spent more time with her. My heart clenches. She will never see me get married. She will never hold her grandchild. There are no more "just because" hugs. No more encouraging words when people tease me. No more of our mother-daughter days going to the spa or just staying at home watching movies. No more talks. No more of her. If I had known that those priceless moments would be end forever, I would've made the most of them. I wish she had told me.

It doesn't seem fair. She's my mom. Mothers are a girl's solid rock support.

"Brie, I've brought you breakfast," a voice says opening the door. Troy. I glance at the clock and see its ten o'clock. I've been staring at the wall for two hours and crying for three since I've woken up. I sit up and catch my appearance on the vanity mirror. I look just as bad as I feel. My hair is standing up in places it shouldn't, my eyes are bloodshot, there are dried tear stains on my face, and my whole demeanor seems numb. I want to smile at him as a thank you but it just doesn't come out. It comes out more of a wince.

He jumps into the bed and takes me into his arms. Troy kisses my forehead as I start to cry again. I'm surprised my eyes haven't run out of water with all the crying I've done. When I calm down after thirty or so minutes, I take a small bite out of my waffle.

"Brie, baby, you need to eat. You haven't eaten since lunch yesterday," Troy tells me, gently taking the fork out of my hands and feeding me a sliced strawberry. He's right. My stomach has been grumbling, but that was the furthest thing from my mind. After I finish eating, we just lay there. No words need to be said. A comfortable silence that doesn't need to broken surrounds us. Soon I fall asleep, dreaming of my mom.

**  
"She's **in here Robert," I hear Laura say. My dad is here. I pretend to sleep a bit longer to see if they are going to say anything. I'm glad Troy is still here. I can hide my face in his chest.

"Oh my baby girl," my dad said, touching my head. "How has she been Laur?"

"She's been crying non-stop. We heard her crying at five in the morning. She's devastated." Laura chokes up. I can tell she's about to cry.

"She looks just like Maria. Oh, I knew we shouldn't have left. She wanted to see the world one more time before she died. I had to give that to her with all she'd given me. She wasn't supposed to go so soon. She had six months! SIX MONTHS! We were supposed to tell Gabby. She wasn't supposed to find out like this."

My dad is crying. I haven't seen my dad cry since I saw the video of when I was born. My daddy is the strong tough guy. Now, he's sobbing on the ground. Jack came in once he heard my dad screaming. They are comforting at the edge of the bed.

My mom and dad have the kind of love I hope to find in someone in the future. They love each other regardless of any flaw. They're high school sweethearts. They stuck together when they had barely a dollar to their names in the beginning of their marriage. Their love is definitely fairy tale worthy.

I wiggle my way out of Troy's arms, waking him up. I immediately jump into my dad's arms. We cry together for our loss. We'll be mourning her forever.

"I'm so sorry Gabriella. She wasn't supposed to leave us so soon. We were supposed to tell you. She had six months left. She was my soul mate. God, you look so much like her."

"I miss her so much dad. I wish I could spend more time with her. I wish she were here now."

"Princess, she'll always be with you. She's going to be your angel," my dad promised.

**My **dad told me everything. They found out about her cancer at the beginning of my junior year. They didn't want to tell me because I already had so much on my plate. They knew I would just drop everything to be there for her. They didn't want to take away my chance to make a good future for myself. They wanted me to have a normal high school experience. They left this summer to give my mom a chance to see the world one last time before spending the last four months with me and dad. That's how it was supposed to be. Fucking fate is twisted and evil. I could've had a chance to cherish my time with her.

Two days ago, I moved out of the Bolton house and went back to my house next door. Today was the funeral. It was the most terrible experience of my life. Everyone wearing black, thousands of tears being shed, and seeing my mom's face for the last time in person. I haven't cried so hard in my life. My dad almost jumped in with my mom. He was torn to a billion pieces. His screams of agony stood out of everyone's cries. Jack had to hold him back from stopping the burial.

I'm sitting at the bench by the lake. It was the only place that I could get away. People kept on asking me if I were okay or giving me looks of sympathy. My dad is at our house going over old photographs of their life together. His crying broke my heart. My mom always torn down his tough demeanor. I needed to get away to a place where I can cry on my own. My house wasn't exactly the best place. It was filled with memories. I even caught my dad spraying her perfume on her side of their bed. I can't even go into my parents' room.

I felt someone put a jacket over my shoulders. I must've been shivering since I'm only in pajamas. I already know its Troy. He probably saw me through his window. He just sits next to me.

"Do you remember that one time when your mom completely covered me and Chad's face with brownie mix?"

I look up at him weirdly. But nod because yes, I do remember. It was when Jen and I were ten, Chad and Troy were twelve. They all came over to my house because we were having a barbeque later that night. Chad and Troy were irritating my mom because they really wanted to eat her homemade brownies and were nagging her about them. She finally got annoyed; she grabbed the spoon, scooped up large quantities of the batter and rubbed it on their faces. Jen and I spent two hours laughing.

"She was great. Do you remember when I had to learn how to drive with her because she was the only one who knew how to drive stick? 'If you can drive stick, you can drive anything!' She made you come with us remember?"

I nod again, not knowing where this conversation was going.

"That was so fun. I remember you screaming in the backseat and your mom yelling at me in Filipino when I did something wrong. It was so cool that she awarded me with cookies when I did something right."

"Troy, where are you going with this?" I finally speak. He sighed and grabbed my hands.

"I just want you to remember all the amazing memories you have with your mom and how amazing she was. Hold on to them forever. You have more memories than I do, but those few will definitely be kept in my heart. Don't let them go because you want to get rid of the pain. I guess there's a reason why all the good times with a person suddenly start coming back when they're lost. It's so we the living don't forget how lucky we were to spend time with that person. Your mom was awesome."

For the first time since my mom died, I smiled a real smile. Not only because of what Troy said, but all the memories that I don't usually recall started filling my brain. I feel like just writing them in a book. Troy hugs me. He walks me back to my backyard, kissing my cheek as a good bye.

"Troy," I call out before he leaves my sight.

"Yes?"

"Thank you. You seem to know what I'm feeling even before I do."

"I just want you to be happy. I'll do anything to make you happy."

I smile. "Thank you."

I run up and kiss his cheek. He cups my face in his hands and kisses my forehead.

"Get some sleep Brie. I know for a fact that you've barely gotten ten hours of sleep in the past three days. I'll be by your side in the morning with your breakfast in hand my lady."

I may have found someone that is slowly, but surely picking up my broken pieces.

**OKAY! Here it is. Sorry it's kind of short but I wanted to get it out as soon as possible. I didn't end up changing my penname because I couldn't think of one. lols. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and PLEASE REVIEW!**


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